Goal Review…Get To It

Two  primary challenges for many entrepreneurs, particularly people just getting started,  is staying focused on the things that matter and maintaining a high level of action on those things.  Setting goals is helpful as it gets you thinking in the “right” direction. But because of all the distractions, all the opportunities, all the commitments in modern life, GOAL SETTING IS NOT ENOUGH.

What really makes a difference is 1) setting goals, and 2) keeping them in the forefront of your consciousness.

You can do this by reviewing your goals once or twice daily: at the end of day to prepare your subconscious for sleep, and the beginning of day for obvious reasons.  An even more powerful strategy is to have a daily (weekly, whatever) ACCOUNTABILITY CALL with a partner.

Use four questions: what’s working, what’s not working, what’s missing, what’s next as an easy way to keep the conversation focused.

THEN… and this step is super critical — make sure that to the degree possible, all your actions, moment to moment, are in support of those goals.  Do that and the magic happens. Do that and your results will be magnificent.

It helps to be clear about the purpose of your goals and the meaning of achieving them. When purpose, goals, and actions are aligned everything becomes easy…

Networking the Right Way

Effective business networking is the linking together of individuals who, through trust and relationship building, become walking, talking advertisements for one another.

Here are four things to focus on when finding the right people to network with. It’s important to do your research and chose wisely.

  1. Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.

  2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

  3. Visit as many groups as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.

  4. Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.

Is Fear Holding You Back?

We’ve all heard of the term “fear of success”. What other things could be holding you back from accomplishing your goals and fulfilling your dreams?

While sailing the high seas of being an entrepreneur alone, you will hit road blocks. Many of them will be self-imposed…due to fear.

After reading a few insightful articles on purposefairy.com I found this and thought it would be helpful to my coaching students and everyone out there who keeps up with this blog.

What is a FEAR and where does it originate? We are afraid of so many things and because of that so many of us, instead of moving forward in life, stagnate or move backwards. This is not how life should be lived, in fear and stress.

I know there are many fears that we all might experience, less or more, and from all of these fears, I have chosen to focus on the ones I found to be the most present in people’s lives.

1. Fear of Letting Go

We fear letting go of familiar places; we fear letting go of relationships that no longer serve us; we fear letting go of who we once were, of our past and we cling to all of these things, thoughts, beliefs and ideas without realizing that the past is gone forever and all that we will ever have is this very present moment.

If we choose to constantly think about what once was, we miss out on what is happening in our lives in this very moment, we miss out on life. We need to learn how to let go of the things that no longer serve you and allow ourselves to be free of fear and free of stress.

“Your past history and all of your hurts are no longer here in your physical reality. Don’t allow them to be here in your mind, muddying your present moments. Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much longer. But all are necessary, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.” Wayne Dyer

2. Fear of Change

 If we manage to let go, what will happen then? This is a question that hunts so many of us, and fear of change scares us so badly. Where will we go, what will we do? Are we going to be safe? What will happen to us?

We have this incredibly powerful fear of change and fear of the unknown that paralyzes so many of us, not understanding that if we keep on doing the things that we’ve always done and if we keep on living in the familiar without leaving our comfort zone, we will always end up in the same situations. There will be no movement,  no growth. Trust yourself. Learn to listen to your heart and intuition and know that the life you want wants you.

3. Fear of Failure

 And if we embrace change, what if we will meet with failure and defeat? Who will we be then and what will our lives look like? This fear of failure keeps so many of us from moving forward in life, from going out there and trying new things. A lot of times, even though we are not happy with where we are and what we do, we would rather stay in our comfort zone than do something different, something new, just because we have this fear of failure hunting us, not seeing that “The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”

4. Fear of Being Different

You want to be normal right? You want to be like everybody else. Why be different? This is not a healthy approach to life, I would say. Constantly trying to please everybody around you and forgetting about the person who matters the most, and that is YOU, will bring so much unhappiness upon us.

You don’t want to be like everybody else, you want to be YOU, true to yourself, and if that implies you being different than those around you, so be it.

Keep in mind that: “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

5. Fear of Unleashing Our Hidden Potential

Whether you believe it or not, this fear actually keeps us even farther away from making our dreams come true, from going out there and sharing with the world our amazing gifts and talents.

This is because, whether we consciously realize it or not, the exposure and the responsibilities that will come once we unleash our potential scares us. We want to move forwards, at least consciously we think we do, but deep down in our subconscious mind we keep the foot on the breaks. We are trying to move forward but with the breaks on. You have no idea how much power the subconscious mind has and how, even though we say we want something, we get stuck because of what is hidden in our subconscious mind.

6. Fear of Not Being Able to Live Up to Other People’s Expectations,

especially when you are constantly seeking approval from those around you in order to feel good about yourself, to feel that you are worthy, to feel validated.

Whenever this fear knocks on your door, keep this in mind: “You are always a valuable, worthwhile human being, not because anybody says so, not because you’re successful, not because you make a lot of money, but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason.” Wayne Dyer

7. Fear of Being Lonely

 Nobody wants to be lonely, especially when you can’t stand the person you are alone with, and you and I know that there are plenty of us in this situation. We come to this world alone, and we will depart alone. If you get to this point where you have accepted yourself completely, where you have learned to love and nurture the person you are deep down inside, you will never feel lonely again because you will now enjoy your company so much and believe me, others will too.

8. Fear of Losing a Loved One

It’s hard to lose somebody you love, and I don’t know how many people can actually deal with the thought of losing a dear one without feeling sad and blue. It’s a normal fear I will have to say, but if we start appreciating these people more, expressing our gratitude for their presence in our lives while they are still here, when the time will come for them to leave this world, it will be a lot easier for us and we will not have to suffer that much.

Instead of using your time to worry and fear about it, you can use that time to show them how much you love them, and to confess to them this love. It will do you and them so much good. Try it and see what happens.

9. Fear of Dying

Oh my, this is another one, a very powerful and delicate one I will have to say. We fear death for we have no idea what will happen after, and if you think about it, it’s a lot like the fear of the unknown.

 ”The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.” Albert Einstein

It doesn’t really matter what religion we belong to, whether we have one or not, and what our thought and beliefs regarding death are, for this does not keep us away from having this fear of dying. When the time will come, we will all have to leave this beautiful Earth, but until that day, let’s just enjoy our time here, shall we? Don’t you think it is a better idea than spending your time worrying about it?

Want More Attention for Your Biz on Pinterest?

Pinterest has taken the world by storm. If you’re a small business owner and you don’t know about the site, check it out. The amount of people who have been drawn in by it in the last year is astounding.

This article from entrepreneur.com gives some wonderful tips on finding ways to make Pinterest work for your biz.

To take advantage of the exploding interest and growing community on Pinterest, you’ll most likely need to motivate people to share your content. That should, in turn, drive traffic to your website.

Here are a few guidelines to follow to help promote sharing:

Build content people naturally want to share.
Because Pinterest is a visually oriented social network, you should focus on images and graphics that people will naturally want to share by re-pinning them to their personal pin boards.

Spend some time clicking through random Pinterest boards to see what’s re-pinned most often. Generally, you’ll see image-heavy posts, infographics and lists. You won’t see many plain text articles being shared — they simply aren’t as aesthetically pleasing on Pinterest boards.
Embed sharing options in your content.
In addition to creating viral-worthy content, you’ll want to build social sharing options into the Pinterest-ready posts on your site. If you run a WordPress site, the ShareThis and Digg plugins offer automated solutions that will add “Pin It” buttons to every post on your site.

If you run a static HTML site or prefer not to use one of those plugins, check out the Pinterest “Goodies” page for details on how to manually install Pinterest sharing buttons on your site and within your content.

Encourage readers to share your content on Pinterest.
Don’t assume that users will automatically share your content. Many need extra prompting to go above and beyond simply reading it.

For this reason, consider asking users to share your content on Pinterest. After you’ve created a pin-worthy article, for instance, add a line such as this at the end of the text: “Like this article? Please take a second to share it on Pinterest.”

You also can add Pinterest sharing prompts to messages you send to your email marketing list, to your forum signature or on your other social networking profiles. Make your calls to action as relevant as possible to the specific group you’re targeting and people will likely share your content on Pinterest.

Be active on Pinterest.
While the first three tips covered specific actions to take on your website to encourage sharing, it’s just as important to maintain an active presence on Pinterest itself.

That doesn’t mean barging in to deliver promotional content on your own Pinterest board. Such intrusiveness probably won’t be appreciated and can lower your chances of having your content shared.

Instead, become a regular participant. Check in at least once a day, create pin boards that aren’t promotional in nature and re-pin content from other users that you admire. If you engage with the community in a low-key, natural way, you can increase your credibility as a Pinterest user. That, in turn, should increase the likelihood that your content will be shared.

By spending time on Pinterest, you also can pick up on trends within the community that you may be able to capitalize on. As an example, earlier this year, the “What People Think I Do / What I Really Do” meme gained traction on popular social networking sites including Pinterest.

As an active member on the site, you could have picked up on this trend and released your own industry-specific graphic.

Set up sharing networks.
If you’re participating on Pinterest regularly but are still having trouble gaining traction with the community, consider setting up sharing networks with other users in your industry.
Essentially, sharing networks represent a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” type of partnership. In these arrangements, you team up with other users to re-pin each other’s content and jumpstart viral sharing on the network.

Of course, there are a few things to keep in mind with this approach. First, try connecting with potential sharing partners who aren’t your direct competitors. Your rivals could siphon off some of the traffic.

Also, monitor the effectiveness of this approach. If you don’t see an increase in sharing and re-pinning of your Pinterest content, end your partnership so you can focus on other approaches.

First There’s Phishing…Now Smishing??

Just when you think you’ve seen it all…along comes something more. As if the whole email scam called phishing wasn’t bad enough, now there’s smishing. Ridiculous, right?

Smishing is a new way to steal your personal information. Smishing is a combination of phishing which refers to sending fake messages and SMS which refers to text messages.

Scammers send text messages that appear to be from well-known businesses, trying to get victims to click on a link. The Walmart name appears in some smishing messages.

“It looks like it’s somebody from Walmart, but it’s not.  It’s designed to get you to a site where they steal information,” says Jeannette Kopko, spokesperson for BBB serving Dallas and Northeast Texas.

Walmart has an alert about the scam on its website:
http://www.walmartstores.com/PrivacySecurity/10840.aspx?p=9620

If you receive a text that you believe is fake, don’t click on the link. You can report it to the Spam Reporting Service by texting “7726″ spelling SPAM to your mobile service provider. You will receive a message back asking for information to identify the source of the spam. See
http://www.gsma.com/technicalprojects/gsma-spam-reporting-services/