Small Business Revitalization Blog

I woke up obsessed with taking a walk through Noosa National Park to Hells Gate.  When I got into the car it was raining (again!)  By the time I was halfway there the rain was coming down in sheets and visibility was pretty much zero.

I almost turned around, but I really, really, really wanted that walk! I could see the tiniest piece of blue sky to the south and I wasn’t allowing a bit of water to stop me.   Arriving at the National Park the rain stopped and midway to Hells Gate it was sunny again! I truly was one excited little bunny!

So what's a walk in the rain got to do with doing business consciously? 

Have you noticed how often we are tempted to give up when we are just a few moments from the thing we truly desire?  What is it you are almost about to give up on, that if you would keep going, would come to fruition faster and sooner than you can imagine?

It’s easy to give up in business.  Sometimes so much has to change beneath the surface before we can see our creations come to life…  That wait can be longer and harder than we desire if we are trying to force something into existence.  If, on the other hand, we go with the flow on the projects that are moving forward and we keep creating and generating lots of different possibilities, our choices expand exponentially.

If I had gone home this morning, I would have spent the whole day looking out the window, wishing I’d been for that walk.  Instead, my willingness to go with my instincts (despite gloomy surface appearances) gave my body some much needed creative impetus and I’m settling in to write for a while!  

And that’s the other part of moving forward to be conscious of… I’m once again working on my book The Mojo of Flow – which I thought would be out last year… but sometimes the flow just isn’t there… so I’ve done a few other projects in the meantime and the last pieces of information that I was ‘waiting’ for have shown up this week – how does it get better than that??

I could have beaten myself up for not finishing when I said I would… but really I always know there is a reason if something isn’t moving forward in the way I would like.  This last chapter will make it the book I knew it could be… that it wasn’t… until this topic came into my conscious awareness!! I am so grateful for consciously allowing the joy which made it all flow with ease (rather than going into the wrongness of me)!

So, let’s do something together…  Would you be willing to stop beating yourself up for anything that’s not working in your business right now… and start playing with whatever has some energy and some momentum? 

And would you put the 'stuck' or 'stopped' projects aside and keep contributing your energy to them, without a point of view as to what will happen next?  What if they could create and generate themselves with an ease you haven't experienced before?

As you do this, ask each project to let you know when it is time for you to play with it again… and know that everything happens with perfect timing.  

I see this ease of moving forward show up over and over with my business coaching clients.  We talk about a strategy, there’s no action, then all of a sudden everything falls magically into place, with an ease that is still astonishing each time it happens!  When we let go of our expectations and just keep moving forward, so much more becomes possible.

Are you willing to operate your business consciously?  Or would you rather do it by force?  How is that working for you?

Have you ever experienced how this flow creates such ease? Tell us about it below!  Or if you are wondering what the hell I am talking about... feel free to ask a question!! 

 Love your work! xox Lisa

For most of 2011 I found time and I to be on totally different calendars.  Time disappeared faster than I could keep up and I found that more than a little frustrating!  2012 dawned and I had the awareness I needed to create a different possibility – or I would be forever feeling ‘behind’ on everything.

When a challenge shows up, do you do what you have always done, go into ‘fix it’ mode, or do you take it as an invitation to create something way beyond what you’ve ever done before?  

What if your challenges are designed to stimulate you to a greater level of awareness of new possibilities?  What if you approached your challenges with a sense of curiosity and adventure instead of the usual sense of dread or despair?

This is how I’m playing with time right now… and I’m the most productive I’ve ever been – with more joy in my work than I’ve ever had!

So what has changed?

• I am having more time off to play which is creating space and clarity.
• I am only doing that which is bringing me joy.  No joy = later (or not at all!!)
• I am being way more creative.  The massive changes I have embraced in being more of me over the last few weeks are allowing solutions to show up faster and more intuitively.
• I am moving with what is moving – projects that feel stuck have been put aside for the moment (it’s that Mojo of Flow thing I like to talk about!)
• I am working in shorter, more intense and spontaneous bursts – more 20 minute blocks than 3 hours of being blocked!
• When I’m done, I’m done!  No suffering, no sticking it out just a little bit longer, nothing except the question ‘what else would be fun to play with right now?’ – And that is creating a sense of ease and speed across all of my businesses.
• I’m willing to change anything and everything… even approaches that have worked in the past… there are no sacred cows!!
• I’m saying YES to more and creating far more!  Strange how this works… but work it does!!

And in case you’re wondering… I’m running three businesses as well as producing a lot of specialist writing for a client.  So everywhere that you have decided you don’t have enough time, would you be willing to know that you can change it?  In an instant?  Just by making a different choice or discovering a different perspective??

I know it sounds way too simple… but sometimes the simplest solutions make the biggest difference!!

What if you could outcreate you?  What would that look like for your particular business challenge?

Have you ever looked at business and thought "There must be an easier way than this"?  Together with Diva Diaz, I am hosting a free teleclass where we take business to places it has never been before!

    What is business beyond your limitations?
    Beyond money?
    Beyond success?
    Beyond everything you see right now?

Would you like to come play with us as we create some new possibilities for how business could be? If you could create business the way YOU would truly like to, what would it be? What are your limitations in business? What are you doing with them? Can you change them? And if so, how can you change them?

This is just one of the many ways in which we approach business differently. For us, business is something that is totally mutable and changeable and in this class we will show you exactly how you can change ANYTHING in business.

What contribution is your business asking for that would create a totally different possibility for you and your business?

This free 45 minute content rich class is on March 13th - via telephone, wherever you are!  You must sign-up to receive the call-in details! The call will be recorded and made available to those who are signed up.

Have you noticed how most people are obsessed with getting business ‘right’ – as if there is only one right answer and once they find it they will have the perfect business for the next hundred million years?

What if, instead of getting business right, we start looking at what is relevant and what random brilliance we could create which would contribute to creating something greater than we have ever generated before? Could that be more fun than having to be the control freak from hell to make it all perfect?

One of my favourite tools is having everything be ‘out of control’… so that I can create from the random chaos of everything that is shifting and changing around me rather than the fixed and limited structures that people like to describe business as (you know... like the strategic plan, the business plan, the swot analysis, the competitive advantages, and all the other buzzwords…. yeah yeah yeah… is that just one big yawn for you??)

What if it could be more like shaking a kaleidoscope and creating a new pattern of possibilities every ten seconds…? ‘Oh this looks fun, what could that look like if I institute it into my business?’ rather than ‘Here is a structure that everyone uses and it has been proven to work for them so I know it will work for me…’  Which one of these makes you feel lighter? Which one makes you feel like you’d rather die??  What if business is truly fun and there can be a lightness with it that allows for infinite and playful creation?  

When I operate from the energy that I will put into place only what is relevant to the impact I desire to have on the world, it makes it easy to come up with randomly brilliant and adventurous ideas at astonishing speed... and the implementation is ease and joy too.  When I do it all by the MBA textbook (of which I have a few!!) there is a heaviness which soon translates into boredom and a lot of unfinished projects… oops!  Cute… not so bright!

Is any of this making sense to you?  What if your true state of being in business is a combination of relevance and randomness, rather than someone else’s idea of rightness?  

What if you were to Houdini yourself out of the definition and limitation of what business ‘should’ be? What could you create as your business?? And how much fun could you have?

(Image:  Pinterest)

Many startup business owners confide in me that they feel like a fraud.  They feel like they are pretending in this game of business and one of their motivations for having a business coach is to get more confident in knowing what they are doing.

Then there are other people who take the ‘fake it til you make it’ approach.  Often jumping from strategy to strategy, idea to idea, shiny object to shiny object… hoping desperately that something will work and they’ll become the highly successful business owner they fantasize is possible.

I was enjoying a great conversation on Facebook this week about the differences between ‘acting’ and ‘acting as if’ in business and when it’s okay to fake it.  To me they are two different energies. 

When we act we are being an energy – we are inhabiting a presence that comes from somewhere deep inside of us.  We are being the energy required to have a successful business, even if it feels a little different to our usual persona.  Just like a great actor does in a movie… when you really believe it could be true, that is acting!

When we are ‘acting as if’ we have started on the journey towards acting, but we are still in the zone of pretending we know what we are doing.  Underneath our ‘acting as if’ we still feel a bit like a fraud, we are still feeling like someone is going to find out we don’t have a clue any moment now…  the self-doubt comes to the fore. That’s more like being a C grade actor… everyone knows you are pretending!!

So what’s your strategy?  Are you going to ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ or are you ready to embody a presence that makes people sit up straight and take notice of what you are doing?  If you are choosing to have presence, you need an underpinning of knowing (rather than knowledge!).  

This is that sense within yourself that you know intuitively what is right for your business and you are willing to move forward with confidence.  You may not have all of the specific knowledge required (that is where a business coach or mentor comes in), but you do have an innate knowing that you have what it takes and your business is positioned to succeed.

This doesn’t mean you won’t take a few detours along the way – these often take us to places not imagined, but useful in an unexpected way!  There will be tweaks and about turns… new paths and the occasional crash to a stop… None of these things mean you are faking it! Discovery and growth is part of the adventure of being in business!  What will keep you going is that underlying presence that you bring to your adventures.  When you are clear and calm within yourself, so much more is possible!

So would you like to explore the essence of having more presence?  Join us at New Energies of BusinessTM – we are including some coaching hotspots this time… so a great opportunity to ask your questions of people who really understand presence! Bookings and more info at www.NewEnergiesOfBusiness.com 

Upcoming dates:  30 November 2011 in Brisbane and February 2012 on the Sunshine Coast.

(Image: Pinterest)

Like many perfectionists, for many years I chased the ever elusive ‘fix your weaknesses’ story, always putting myself in places where I could work on my weaknesses. Sadly this strategy did not bring me or my employers a whole lot of joy and I eventually got smart enough to avoid choosing the jobs that were too focused in those areas of weakness.

At one point I graduated to telling my employer why it would not be a good idea to give me certain tasks… I explained these tasks were not a natural talent and ability for me and they would be wasting their and my time given my capacities in other areas!  Of course, most people ignored this, preferring to squash the square peg into the round hole until they created a big mushy mess of misery for them and me.  Imagine if Frank Gehry had become a bricklayer instead of the magnificent architect he is?  The world would be much the poorer and he would be finding a whole lot less joy in his work!

I see this often with business owners – instead of allowing our team to shine in ways that are natural to them, we create a set of expectations and conditions that create the exact opposite.  And then we wonder why the business is not performing!!  As a business coach, it’s my job to sometimes deliver a little tough love to either the employee who is not loving their work or the business owner who is not creating the possibility for that in the workplace.  

Performance issues are almost always a result of the manager and the employee not being present with the strengths of the person who is not performing.  When we are truly present with our own strengths, talents and capacities it allows us to choose or create a role that is perfect for us (rather than twist, bend and mutilate ourselves to become perfect for the role!!)  

When we are present to our capacities, we work with ease and can easily outcreate and outdeliver almost anyone else… When you have a whole company full of people being present with their capacities and those people are in the roles best suited to their strengths, competition becomes irrelevant because you have a massive peak performance advantage!

Having this presence embodies a confidence, a connection with self and the willingness to be a contribution far beyond what most people see as possible.  Owning this inner presence individually and as a business builds in a set of distinctively different competencies that are incredibly difficult to copy well.  If you desire to build a sustainable, peak performing business, this is a great place to start! 

At the next New Energies of Business events we are bringing you two amazing speakers who live this strategy in their workplaces and beyond… what if we could have peak performance as the norm, instead of wading through the challenges of performance management way too often?  Would that make your business more blissful??  

If you’d like to know more, join us for an adventurous day of uncommon insights into what’s working right now!!  Bookings and more info at www.NewEnergiesOfBusiness.com  (Upcoming dates:  November 2011 in Brisbane and February 2012 on the Sunshine Coast)

(Guggenheim Bilbao image via Pinterest)

So you want to start a business following your passion? Here’s the thing… passion is what happened when Christ got nailed to the cross… yes, passion is a killer. Passion has limitations! It’s all about what’s sitting on the outside, it’s noisy, its brash, it’s full of movement and doing… and it doesn’t always make you money - there's a lot of convincing others to follow your passion when your business is based on passion.  

I disagree with Gary Vaynerchuk (and a whole lot of other people who say ‘follow your passion and the money will come’)… that’s the field of dreams folks, not the way to business bliss. Joseph Campbell said ‘follow your bliss’… he didn’t say ‘follow your passion’. You might think I'm being picky with words here.  I am.  Words carry distinctive energies and I know which energy I'd rather play with!

That’s because passion has an energy that is about hustle, about pushing, about coming to a conclusion and then trying to make it come true. Passion burns out…it’s doing business the hard way. Is that the platform you want for your business?  So what else is possible?

 

Building a business that brings you joy has unlimited possibilities. Joy comes from that quiet space within. It’s not dependent on how much money you make. You can simply choose to BE joy… it’s not something you have to do.

When we create our businesses based on joy we create a platform which allows each aspect of joy we create in the business to keep expanding and building. Joy spreads everywhere with ease... because the people you want to work with choose joy... and they share it when they find it!

Joy allows us to reinvent business. To take the path less travelled. To create a business where we can do what we love, in ways that bring us bliss, with people we adore. Joy is a softer and stronger platform for building business bliss.

Joy still requires a business model, it still requires promotion… but take a look at this… Recently a friend introduced me to Sourced Grocer at Teneriffe. Truly, I am in love. These beautiful people have converted an old warehouse into a gourmet grocer flower shop café delight which whispers joy in every detail.

Beautiful produce, delicious snacks, quirky styling… business cards proclaiming ‘local is lovely’… steps and cushions for lounging in the sunshine… great reading material and my most favourite bit of all… a really joyful team – you can feel the vibe as soon as you arrive… people who really love what they are doing…and guess what all of that brings? A steady stream of customers who get the vibe and contribute to the joy… fantastic word of mouth advertising… and heaps of repeat business.

 

What are you choosing?  To follow your bliss or to follow your passion?? 

 

I was reading James Altucher's insightful post on10 Reasons You're Probably Talking Right Now When You Should Be Silent and it struck me that my list of benefits for stopping talking would be quite different, but the value in being silent cannot be overstated!  So here's five of my favourites... that may just entice you to gift yourself a few more silent moments as you go about your daily business...

1. Stop Sharing Your Stories

By this I don't mean the stories that build culture and brand, but the stories that everyone has heard a million times, the stories that keep you stuck in why you can't, the stories that limit your possibilities.  Stop telling them to anyone that will listen and go create some new ones that create new choices for your business, your team and your customers. 

2. Stop Talking AT Your Customers

You know what I mean, you've seen their eyes glaze over while they wait for you to take a breath... you need to stop talking at them and start listening...what if what they have to say could triple your profits?  Would you be willing to listen instead of talk then?  (Same goes for your business coach... tell the shortest story you can, ask a question or two then listen!  You'll triple your awareness and quite possibly your profits ;)

3. Make Space for the Silence

Our being requires peace, our ego-brain requires constant stimulation.  All of us are over-stimulated.  When we take the time to disengage from the grid for an hour, a day or a weekend the silences create new awarenesses in our universe.  By taking a notepad into the bush I wrote a speech in less than an hour last week... simply magic - and something that would never have showed up with such ease and simplicity if I had tried to write at the computer with its million and one shiny distractions... Make space for the silence.  When we listen our inner essence tells us all we need to know.

4.  Stop Filling in the Gaps

So many of us rush to fill the gaps with words... instead we could allow that job interview candidate to tell us the thing we really need to know about them... we could allow that customer to thank us and to actually receive their gratitude without filling the space with words... we could gift someone some silent space to engage with what we have just said to them, rather than rushing onto the next oh so important point (from our own limited perspective anyway)...

5. Stop Making Excuses

You know the head chatter that endlessly gives us the 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' list of excuses, reasons and justifications for why we aren't where we want to be.  If we silence the head chatter and the verbal stream of (un)consciousness that constantly tells us all the ways we aren't good enough, can't make it, don't have what it takes, we might just have enough space to see what actually is required to bring our dreams into fruition.  BE first.  DO second.  Only talk if you are asking questions!

Love Your Work!

Lisa

 

I wake up every morning full of gratitude for the work I do and full of excitement because I absolutely love my work. Why? Because it wasn't always this way! 

Since I took a flying leap of faith and left the land of corporate comfort 4 years ago, my work has gradually evolved into something I can immerse myself in with joy.  As I have refined and refined what it is I do, how I do it and each day look at the question of when and where I work, I can honestly say that it is rare for me to have a day where I don't love every moment!

As a business coach (one of my multiple hats!) I talk to many small business owners every day.  I've come to see that most of them still have a way to go in creating this daily joy in their work.  So today I am asking you to do one simple thing:  just for today, only make choices that will allow you to 'love your work' - and really look at what would allow you to love each part of the work you undertake today...

• Do you just need to approach a task with a sense of joy it will be over soon?
• Do you need to look at that person that annoys you and take comfort from the idea you are contributing to feeding their family?
• Do you need to stop doing a few things that don't add value to your day?
• Do you need to create a space that brings you joy to work in?
• Do you need to totally invent your job or business so that you regain the sense of playful excitement you first started out with?

Whatever will allow you to love your work today, make a start!  And see how you feel at the end of the day... maybe your Monday-itis won't be quite so intense this week!!

I will soon be sharing my new 'Love Your Work' 10 week e-coaching program with you... if you aren't loving your work, make sure you are signed up to the Revive Business Coaching free resources list to discover more!

Love Your Work!  Lisa

P.S.  Did you know that loving your work is contagious?  What if you were surrounded by people that love their work?  Would that make your work way more blissful?  Be you... change the world!

 

This morning a friend sent me a text message saying she was in a café and could overhear a business coach chewing out a client.  Wow - I was more than a little surprised!!  I have never needed to add to a client's stress levels like that and I never will.

Yes, I do believe in tough love when appropriate.  If you ask me to hold you accountable I will – very clearly -  once we agree on the parameters.  But I would never do it in a way that is unkind or disrespectful to you as a person.  I care too much about my clients to behave like that, and I care too much about our planet to bring anger or frustration into my coaching.  What if our earth is erupting because there is so much anger everywhere and she just can't contain it anymore?  Do any of us who are aware and conscious truly need to add to that?

Caring takes a lot more courage than chewing someone out.  What contribution can you be to our beautiful world today? Every energy we create has an impact far wider than just the person we are talking to.  The frustrated energy that coach was splattering around that café was felt by many more people than just her unfortunate client. 

I am more and more mindful of how far energy flows and what my total contribution is to the entire planet - in every interaction I have - with clients, friends, foes,and people I see in living everyday...  So, here’s what you need to know if you choose to work with me:

• Because I care, I will tell you when I feel you need to look at other options.
• Because I care, I will find a way to show you when it’s time to step it up a bit and shine your light more brightly into the world.  
• Because I care, I will tell you when I see greater possibilities for you than you can see right now.
• Because I care, I will be very clear about what it will take for you to have a successful business, even if you don’t want to hear it.
• Because I care, I will create the potential for you to discover the joy and bliss in your business, and sometimes, on the surface, that may not look like what you want it to!

Because I care, I will do this with humour, kindness and playfulness - not judgment, anger or frustration.  I will do it with sensitivity to where you are right now.  I will do it with awareness that you may not like me for a few moments because you weren’t expecting to hear what I have said (and I’ll never take offence, even if you do for a moment or so!!)

It’s this simple.  You need to care more than I do about your business.  If I found myself in a place where I had to chew you out over something, then I would be caring more for your business than you do.  If I ever find myself caring more than you about your business, then you need a different business or a different business coach.  (Of course, if you are one of those rare souls who love getting chewed out, it would be way easier for you to get a job and get paid for it, rather than paying a coach!)

Your business will thrive when you really really really desire thrival to show up.  When you make the demand of YOU to do whatever it takes!  I am here to mentor you, to contribute to you and to show you what is possible…what are you willing to receive?  What are you willing to contribute... to you, to your business, to the planet?

Love Your Work!
Lisa 

P.S. If this resonates with you, you are welcome to join us for the New Energies of Business events where we explore how we can change business consciously... or if you are looking for a business coach, you could enjoy a free 30 minute business coaching session to see if my business coaching style works for you!