2022 is over as far as I am concerned, but before we fully leave it in the dust, here is a journaling exercise about 2023 to bridge the gap. If you answer each of these questions (as briefly or fully as you would like), you will enter 2023 with more clarity, direction, and, most importantly, perspective.
Read moreThe Secret to Getting Over Sales Aversions
Nearly every person I talk to “hates sales.” There is this icky sticky feeling in the pit of your stomach when you actually have to ask someone to pay you for the product you worked so hard to develop. You need to stop feeling like a sleazebag whenever you start to head towards the selling part of the equation. Really, you do. Your business cannot flourish until you get over your sales aversion. You are, literally, preventing yourself from helping the people you have chosen to serve.
Read moreRemember That You Love Your Business
I have a signature piece of marriage advice that I give when my friends get married. "Remember that you are in love. Remember that you are in love and act like it." Too often people get married and then stop acting like they are in love. They stop holding doors, flirting, staring lovingly, dating, and sometimes even being nice to each other. No wonder people fall out of love when they stopped acting like they were in love a long time ago. I am not sharing this for the marriage advice though, but rather because this is also great advice when you own your own business.
Read moreFebruary Reset with Elizabeth
What do you do when your January didn’t quite go as you had planned? Don’t throw the whole year away just because one month didn’t go the way you had hoped. Come listen as I walk you through how to reset in February. If you are looking for a beautiful planner to help you reset in February then head over to @theemeraldoffice on Instagram and enter my giveaway for a beautiful Desk Planner from Sugar Paper. If you need something to help guide you through your goal setting for a successful reset check out my Virtual Goal Setting Retreat here https://www.fullfocusentrepreneur.com/newyears2022 Full Focus Entrepreneur: The Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Tollis.
Read moreNo One Is Coming to Save You
Those first years in business, when I created this business because I had bills to pay and couldn’t find a job that would meet my requirements, I let myself entertain a backup plan. I let myself try this whole business thing out while I waited for the dream job to appear. I entertained working for a big fancy museum, I built relationships with environmentally revolutionary startups, I let other opportunities distract me from the work in front of me, from the mission I am carrying out, from the vision of all I will build with this business.
Read moreWhat Do You Think It Will Cost?
Our society has taught us that success will cost you.
Our society perpetuates this stereotype… thank you Elon Musk thank you Steve Jobs…. that the people who are successful do so at a great personal cost; that they sacrifice their marriages, they sacrifice being good parents, they sacrifice their friendships all on the altar of pursuing ultimate success and that if you do want to be successful it’s gonna cost you.
Read moreThe Many Ways We Launch as Business Owners
Every time NASA sends up a ship, satellite, or probe, its a launch, not just their first launch back in 1958. Now sure generally the news only gets really excited when they are sending people up or headed way far out, but nevertheless, NASA is launching all the time. As business owners, we think of the very FIRST launch as our only launch but businesses are launching all the time.
Read moreWhisper Directly in Your Market's Ear with Content that Makes Your Voice Heard
Creating your own podcast is the happy medium that a lot of people are looking for, more engaging than a blog post, less production than a video, podcasts deliver on every front. The major advantage of podcasting is that despite the feeling that there are tons of podcasts out there, the playing field is WAY less crowded than blogging or youtube.
Read moreIf You Don't Make Money, You Have a Hobby, Not a Business
I can hear it from here, the sales anxiety and resistance. Being an entrepreneur means being a salesperson. Long after your company makes it big and you hire a sales team to do the grind work, you will still be in sales. And at the beginning, there isn’t a better way to do it. Sales, up close and personal toe-to-toe selling, is the best way to get to know your market.
Read moreThe 10 Piles of Chaos Blocking Your Business
When we think about chaos in a business our brain immediately goes to a big tangle of EVERYTHING gone wrong. But in my experience, we all have these little pockets of chaos, little piles where something has been dropped there to be dealt with later and then another thing and another and another and suddenly you have a pile of chaos keeping you from being your most effective, most aligned self. A lot of times this is a pile of chaos that we have tucked away in the back of our minds (or our closets) and we might not even know it exists but it is impeding our ability to be as impactful (and frankly as happy) as we can be.
Read moreMaking Your Own Luck
I come from a very lucky family. I’m not talking about being blessed or fortunate or anything like that. We just genuinely are lucky people. Things work out for us. We have luck on our side. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to break luck down for you. My family is known for being lucky because we (mostly unconsciously) do all of these things. In life and in business here is how you be lucky.
Read moreKeith Reynolds: The Networking Mindset
Keith Reynolds is one of the founders of Synapse, a business networking organization that brings business people and community non-profits together for deeper and more impactful collaborations. I sit down with him in The Emerald Office to talk about the mindset that will uplevel your networking and your business.
Read moreI Blame My Parents
I am the product of yin and yang parents. From as far back as I can remember, my dad has always been the entrepreneurial one. He loved the independence, creativity, and freedom of working for himself. He is a big-picture, visionary, designer-builder-type entrepreneur. My mother was the nuts and bolts. Her first language is spreadsheets and in college she minored in color-coding. I am a little bit of both.
Read moreEating Everest
When we have a big task like this hanging over our heads it becomes larger than life an un-climbable mountain.
This is your Everest.
And I want you to eat it.
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