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Needing Support But Scared to Make the Call?

February 4 Dawn

A nervous client recently said to me they were a little scared about letting someone else in and they had to pluck up the courage to call because coaches have it all together.

Er.

No.

Myth.

Well, this one (me!) has never experienced life as all together.

An analogy: it’s a bit like going to see a Dr. Because of the job title they have, we automatically give them a lot of authority and instant power over our health, they have the title, so they know best, right? (Do they?) And we can (rightly or wrongly) assume that their life is in perfect working order: they probably don’t eat junk food, smoke, drink too much, or snort a line of the white stuff.

What do we know?

Their personal life could be crumbling apart around their stethoscope, they could be a regular at AA meetings, be covered in nicotine patches, going through a messy divorce, their kids could be not speaking to them, their partner having an affair and yet they come to work, leave their baggage at the door and then pick it up again at the end of the shift. We don’t get to see and will never know what goes on when they take off the white coat.

I mean, can you imagine a GP sitting you down and telling you their worries and problems? No, it wouldn’t be right.

I believe we all need support.

As a coach and trainer I pay for professional support and supervision. Because I’m self employed I don’t have the luxury (or dread depending on how you see it) of monthly support and supervision sessions with someone higher up the ladder (as I’m the only one my ladder), or an annual review.

I decided early on in my business that I wanted to pay someone who had no emotional investment in my business and who was prepared to just listen. To be there. To not judge me. I didn’t want business coaching, I wanted support.

So, every couple of months I pay a professional who who sits and nods as I tell them my woes, worries, concerns and strife’s, without ever mentioning names I tell her about things that I couldn’t help with, where I got stuck and stories I didn’t understand. I share with them moments when I feel lost (out my depth even) or when I struggled, or wished I had approached a situation in completely different way.

She asks the questions, I provide the answers. And I always come away from there feeling supported.

See, sometimes this work can be tough. Once you get used to me and I you, once we’ve settled in, and our relationship is formed, when you begin to open up and peel away the layers you feel safe in exposing and share the parts of who you really are I for one need support to help you.

Professionally I know your story is not mine: your problems and concerns don’t belong to me, but as soon as you share them I want to be able to help you in the best way possible for you at this time.

Occasionally your stories are hard to listen to. Sometimes when you share with me, even with all the professional training in the world, I still can quickly be reminded of an event in my own life. I can’t help it, emotions are funny buggers, they spring from no-where.

And that’s why I pay for support and supervision, I need to always know where I end and where you begin. I need to know that my stuff isn’t encroaching on your stuff.

I want you to know that even though I do what I do (and others like me) appear to have all our ducks lined up, that we appear to have life neatly packaged and bowed, we don’t. Well, I don’t. I can’t speak on behalf of others.

You said you’re scared about letting someone in, sometimes we’re scared that you’ve picked the right person to invite in. We have our limits too you know.

We’re human. Just like you. We have our own stuff going on, we may never share it all with you because you aren’t paying us to listen to our worries. We’re trained to leave our own luggage at the door, and rightly so. Sometimes we’ll give you snippets, if it’s appropriate to do so.

But please, leave behind that thoughts that coaches are all sorted. I don’t think it’s true. But (again) I can only speak for myself.

We can perhaps relate to your story because in some bizarre way it’s formatting is a little like our own. But we would never merge the two.

When you pick up the phone, send email or get in touch we know how hard that action could’ve been. We know that because we’ve probably been in a situation similar.

Most of the coaches I know don’t work in total isolation, they want to give you the best service, when you’re with them remember they are probably getting support behind the scenes for their life and work too: either through a regulating body, association, mastermind group, paid for support and supervision or even their own coach.

We do all need support.

We all need someone who’s ‘upright’ in our life.

This Is a Post About Modelling Behaviour + Dog Poop!

February 2 Dawn

Dear Moxieologists,

NB: this is actually a post about observational learning, but we are going to get to it by talking about dog poop, as you do!

This is one of those weird experiences in life you have to tell people about in the hope that they will go ‘Really! No Way! Wow!’ instead of looking at you as if you’ve just landed on earth.

So I’ll start by saying I have the most talented dog in the world, you know how some think their kids are the smartest, prettiest, funniest, most intelligent and they let everyone know about it, well I’m owning all that above and applying it to Inca the dog … er … because I can.

She has a few issues that she needs to take time for herself and work on, she isn’t perfect: she raids the bin, throws up on your lap, puts holes in your socks, and the worst is her rather embarrassing licking habit.

Want to stretch your comfort zone?

Come, borrow and walk Inca: don’t worry she’ll always go with you, she goes with everyone, she’s that not fussed who takes her to the world beyond the front door.

At some stage on your walk she’ll pass a stranger and before you even remember the last time it happened, she’ll have given the unprepared souls bottom area a quick sniff and a couple of licks.

Comfort zone? I swear having to apologise to a complete stranger for your dog having a sniff and lick of, I’m sorry, what can only be a whiffy bottom, is a major act of courage and confidence, comfort zones stretched in a second.

There was a lovely lady once who said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, it was quite pleasant actually!’

(She does the lick to my friend Matt’s bottom, but that’s acceptable, she knows him and is used to his smells. Not that he smells, she just has a supersonic doggy nose.)

Got a picture of Inca? Excellent.

Now the Poop

Living with cats (oops cat now, no plural, *sigh*) and dogs it’s pretty much guaranteed that poop is a big part of your life.

Whether trying to find it in the cat litter tray or wanting to look as cool as Jay-Z having a cry while at the same time picking up the doggy droppings with a nappy sack, holding onto a ball thrower, your keys, a phone, pretending that the scoop-that-poop performance is something you dig yo, is a challenge.

Anyhoo, the other day I thought that Storm (she’s the remaining cat *another sigh*) had some serious bowel issues going on.

Going in for the Cat Litter Tray Swoop Manoeuvre (a quick dive before the smell hits and you keel over), faced with what I saw, I did think for a second, ‘Geez, that cat has lost her inners!’.

On a second observation however I recognised the poop as Inca’s.

Ah, not a doglet owner? Well, poop identification is not some weird poop fetish thing, we dog owners (after a while) can recognise our own dogs shite. That could be a new reality TV show? Mmm, a field, a hundred dogs, winner of most collected poop from own dog gets …

Anyway.

Be Prepared to Be Dazzled

And this is the talented part, Inca had done her business inside the cat litter tray.

You can think ‘WOW. Really. No-Way’ now.

Go on.

I’ll wait.

Soak up her talent.

Or you may think ‘Dawn that is really no big deal’. And I would have to stop you there … you … you … unimpressed one, and remind you that Inca is a collie dog, she’s fairly big and the cat has a teeny weeny toilet. And this poop was in the middle. Inca had backed herself strategically in to make a deposit.

On my discovery I took a breath in and I was about to call her name with the get-here-you-little-bugger tone, when she came bounding up, tail wagging and totally pleased with herself. Bless. So all I could manage was, ‘Who’s a good girl then. Who’s a gooood giiiiiirl?’ What else could I say?

And if you’re a doggy trainer or Cesar Milan yes, yes, yes, I know it was the worst thing to do. But come on, this is clever stuff, she wasn’t taught, she didn’t have a little potty trainer stool from Ikea bought for her as a puppy, she eats toilet paper and thinks cat poop are flavoured biscuits most days. So, how? How can she have known.

I think (which is probably not the reason but I want to believe it is), remember I told you about taking Tipsy to the loo when he broke his back? She was there. Inca, being a typical collie, needs to know where all humans and other four legged things are at all times. And she watches. She is observing and making her next move constantly, she can’t help it, it’s the breed.

She has taught herself! She’s modelled the cats!

You can say ‘Wow’ again now! Don’t resist it. Go on.

You could say, ‘it’s the smells’, but she has never done this ever before in the house. “She needed out?” Nope, I was in and she knows the routine (usually).

My dog has taught herself to use the cat litter tray.

Now, you can tell I’m excited about this because I’m thinking long boat trips without land in sight, a cat litter tray down below for the doggy in a life jacket. I can sail the world with her! Not that I want to do that but if I did we would be sorted in the doggy business department.

Oh, and she isn’t going to be doing again in the future, not on my watch, I mean I’m not going to just let her, what do you take me for?

So there you have it, I have the most intelligent dog in the world.

And now, her owner (me) is sitting here thinking how the hell can I turn that into something more meaningful … I know …

Have you heard of Observational Learning?

Observational learning or social learning theory is a ‘wow, really, no way’ baby from Psychologist Albert Bandura (that’s Bandura, not bandanna) . Basically (and briefly as it’s a massive topic, I’m not a psychologist or his research assistant, and I won’t do it justice in a blog post) social learning is when an observer changes her behaviour after observing the behaviour of another, known as the model.

The change or behaviour can be positive and negative, the observer doesn’t need any encouragement or enforcement for the learning to happen, but the extent of the behaviour can be reinforced positively or negatively.

Got a child who is behaving strangely or not like themselves to you? Chances are they are just modelling what they have observed, if going by social learning theory. (Note: the theory would include you as the model.)

Social learning theory, I think, totally backs up the common statements, ‘Oh, wait until they get to high school, that’s when the trouble starts!‘ that parents make.

No, that’s when the change of behaviour begins because of what they are giving attention to every day.

Example: a child has seen that another gets attention by shouting, they want attention, they shout, their carer/parent shouts at them to tell them not to shout. But the negative behaviour has been reinforced because they got the attention, and shouting was part of it. Negative reinforcement has happened.

Not all observations of models ‘get through’, just because we pay attention to something does not mean we will learn and change behaviour. The crucial part in all this is the production and what happens when we do, the motivation.

There is a phrase/quote that goes around shelf-help land, Facebook walls and motivational posters with big text along the lines of, ‘You become who you spend most of your time with, choose wisely’.

But is it accurate? Many think of people in their life when they read that statement. But people aren’t the only models: TV, magazines, music videos, celebrities, reality TV shows, cartoon characters, films, the news’ everything we pay attention to and observe has the potential to be modelled.

What Are You Observing and Paying Attention To?

If you’re in the process of change, I have no doubt you’ve read and watched plenty on pay attention to yourself, to observe your own behaviour, habits and attitudes, to become the watcher of you. I have written, and I believe, it’s something we can all do to help us understand our own motivations better, to go inside.

But, if going by social learning theory, I think we can understand more of who we are by observing and paying attention to what we are choosing to observe on a regular basis on the outside.

So, my question is this: who or what are are you observing?

Next.

What are you giving your attention to? What’s getting through? What is it teaching you? What are you learning from it? Who or what are your models? Are you unhappy with the way things are in your life today? Have you learned inaccurate information from what you modelled?

If you’re not happy with the way things are at present do you need to refocus and observe something else?

Need a couple of examples? Okay …

Example 1#: you have been trying to lose weight for years, you know it’s not working and yet you still pay attention to new fads, diets, celebrities, TV, what would happen if you started paying attention to another model? What if you started to observe fitness instead of weight lose?

Example 2#: you may want to change career, you’ve paid attention to ‘How to Change Career’ books, blogs, your CV has been worked and reworked, you’ve spoken to advisor’s, you’ve taken a course, and still it’s not happened. What if you gave your attention to volunteering instead? What if you read more on being happier and living a fulfilling life?

Look, I’m not saying these will 100% work, but if you’re unhappy and what you’re doing isn’t working, how about paying attention to another model for a while?

I love the fact Inca pooped in the cat tray.

I love the fact that pets teach.

I love the fact that I daily observe and watch how this four-legged fur ball of mischief runs her life and how I change because of her

I think it’s fecking hysterical that I’m sitting next to three book shelves teeming with more titles than Amazon in their personal development section, but my lessons come from paying attention to dogs popping in cat trays.

What about you? Is there any area of your life that needs a refocus of your attention? Please a comment if you fancy. (And if you have a ‘learned from my pet lesson’ feel free to share because those stories are usually awesome!)

Quit Doing Business With the Comparison Fear

January 31 Dawn

Do you constantly compare yourself to others in your little biz? Do you come online to do some business work and before you know it you’re looking at your peers websites, offerings and services and wishing you could do it just like them? Do you become disheartened? Do you then look back at your own stuff and think it’s not good enough?

Yuk.

Okay you, there isn’t a problem with making a comparison.No, no, not when you’re choosing your gas and electric supplier or which cat-hotel to leave your furry-friend for a couple of weeks. But it sure as hell becomes one when you go beyond weighing up one thing against another logically to comparing yourself to them.

That is a problem.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had the ‘I wanna be like them conversation’ with little business owners: highly skilled experienced individuals comparing themselves, their work, their message, their websites, their programs, events, products, blogs, writing, content, offering, popularity … and so on with another. Someone they know, or even someone they don’t.

Even the other week I had a conversation with little biz owner who ‘didn’t want to launch their blog because they wanted to be as good as….’

Insanity.

When you’re looking outwards and having thoughts such as, ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ or ‘How can they do that, what’s wrong with me? or ‘They are so much better than me’ or ‘My stuff isn’t as good as theirs’ you’re on a hiding to nothing.

With love…

There is nobody on the planet, and I mean nobody, who can deliver your message into the world about who you are, what you do and how you do it better than you. Nobody. No such other person exists. They never have before and they never will in the future.

For sure, there are probably people out there who you really admire, and what they are doing is awesome. But they are doing it their way, you can’t ever replicate it, there isn’t another one of them either.

For sure, they actually could be more masterful at some stuff than you? And?

Dealing With Comparison

The fact you’re reading this post tells me you have crossed the biggest hurdle to overcoming comparison. In fact, if this was a race, you’re nearly at the end and about to finish.

Why? Because you are aware. And that is a good thing. You’re aware that sometimes when you observe others and when you want to go down the self punishment path it is doing you no good. Check. Error correction underway.

So let’s bag this one. Ready? Here’s a few things to try (read: try, that means taking action!)

Change Your Thoughts

When you see something that someone else has produced created or put out there and you are about to make a comparison tell your lizard brain (the one that has you locked in fears of not being good enough) to, ‘Shut the feck up’. Turn. It. Down.

Then…

Appreciate

Do you love what you’re about to compare? Is it something you would have loved to have come up with? Is it awesome? Is it beautiful? Inspiring? Creative?

Put comparing out the picture for a second, if it had been you that had produced it, what feedback would you like to receive? A tweet, a share, a quick email saying ‘I love what you’ve produced’, a note saying ‘this is really fantastic’. Then do it. Appreciate rather than compare.

But they are the competition you cry. And? So what? I’m not asking you to send all your customers and clients their way, I’m asking you as an individual to appreciate what another is doing. Is that too hard? We don’t need feedback, it’s nice to receive though. This is much healthier than comparing.

Focus

Focus on your own stuff. If you want to waste your life wishing you were more like/live a life like/create a business like, I advise you speak to someone who can help you acknowledge your own skills and support you to see your uniqueness.

The problem is with you, not the person you are comparing yourself too. You are the one look outward, perceiving, judging and comparing. You have a business to run, you don’t have the time to waste thinking others are better than you.

And hey, know what? They may be better are certain things, but people are waiting on you to help them your way. One person isn’t going to be right for everyone, focus on the people who you love to serve. Period.

If it’s a skill they have and you don’t, learn it. That’s it. Simple.

Love

Love this and repeat it often, especially straight after point 1 above, ‘I, myself, am enough’. Envy, jealousy, comparison of self against others is (bottom line) fear. The anti-dote to fear is love, so more of it please, for yourself.

And remember everyone has their own stuff going on, a lot of what we think is perfectly perfect is done behind ‘smoke and mirrors’.

You can keep comparing, that’s your choice, but are you comparing the real you to a perception you have of another person/thing/way of life, based solely on what you they have chosen to share with you? What about the things you don’t see?

When you stop comparing what is right here and now with what you wish were, you can begin to enjoy what is. Cheri Huber

Are We Worrying Too Much About the How?

January 29 Dawn

This happened.

Last year, my mastermind group made a commitment to each other that we would blog each day in August.

Why? Was it for the SEO? For the traffic? For the achievement? Nope, alas nothing that planned, purely because we had been lazy sods all summer and let it slide. Our blogging efforts were shocking. Really awful. No oomph or excitement about it all. We wanted to get back into the swing-a-ling.

Away we went, happily clicking and tapping on our keyboards, then we started talking about our little challenge, before we knew it we had other solo business owners joining us (50, mainly therapists): completely unplanned, no big deal, fanfare or big launch thing. With some of them using the challenge to start their own blog or get serious about the one they already had, and others just wanting to get in the flow.

We then said, ‘Let’s put on a beginners course for new-ish bloggers, peeps like us with people helpery businesses, so we did. We had been wanting to work together on a business-type project together, and this seemed like the ideal and natural thing if going by all the feedback, questions and ‘problems’ from the unexpected little community that had popped up.

We delivered webinars, made videos, worksheets, instructions and how to’s, created a forum, a secret cloak and dagger Facebook group, sent daily emails, ran Google+ Hangouts, and all the other bits ‘n’ bobs that go into making an online course. We got it all up and running in a week. Which is funny considering it took me two years to launch a new website.

Then we thought, we probably need to get a website and, erm, well, a blog since it’s a blogging course. So we did that. Then we thought do we need other social media accounts (apart from our own), so we created them too.

Everything upside down, topsy turvy and back to front.

Here’s my thinking on this: in business world (life?) we know that planning is an excellent thing to fall in love with but sometimes I think you just have to fall in love with the intention, decide on how you want to people to feel at the end (or yourself), then jump right fecking in.

Learn, apply and make it all happen as you’re doing it, and that includes admitting errors and rectifying mistakes.

I honestly believe that spontaneous and unplanned course was one of the best things that happened last year in my business, for so many reasons. I remember other events and courses that have worked exactly the same way in the past.

I’d love your thoughts on this, but I believe that it’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘how’, that we can talk ourselves out of doing what we know we are more than capable of. It was also where I learned, really learned, that wanting to create perfection was getting in my own way … big time. There was no time for perfectly perfect, the course had to happen, people were already in their seats.

Yes, there was loads we would have done differently, that’s true. Yes, it was stressful at times. No, I wouldn’t recommend I do everything this way. It just felt right. We did say to people joining the online class at the start, ‘please come but there will be hiccups and whoopsies, but if you can hack that so can we’. And still, they came. We weren’t 100% ready, but we were perfectly ready to start. And yes, we made errors. Having to admit them? A priceless education in being human.

But then to receive emails that people had been offered business, contracts, able to work with the people they really love to work with because of their blog a few months later. That was amazing. And I feel really honoured to have been a little part of it.

Why am I telling you all this?

1. For you to ask yourself, ‘where are am I getting in my own way?’ Where are you worrying too much about the how? Is there a little bit of perfection in there? What would happen if you let us in and showed us what you were creating?

2. We are having another blogging challenge (on the new website) and (if you fit the criteria) we would love for you to join us. Now closed.

3. Anne Frank said, ‘How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.’ And look, she still is.

What are your thoughts? Do we worry too much about the how? Feel free to leave a comment, let’s discuss.

Stop Punishing Your Optimism. Seriously.

January 24 Dawn

You know how it goes: everything is going really well, you feel great, things are happening, you’re creating awesomesauce by all the small steps you’re taking, things are moving forward in exactly the way you wanted them to when you set out, self efficacy is high and optimism is through the roof.

You’re getting on with it , in the flow, cruising along and trusting your own instinct. Well done you.

But.

In it creeps.

The doubt.

The thoughts of ‘what if this doesn’t work?’

How? When not two minutes before everything was okay?

Answer: a belief. Or a few of them screwing you up in the here and now.

But how?

Oh, a few failed attempts in the past, a bad experience of the past, people questioning what your doing and spending ( wayyyyy too much) time in the company of people who think you’re on a hiding to nothing are all fuelling the beliefs that support pessimism not optimism.

How does this punishment behave?

You sanction your optimism, you begin to give yourself the red light. You stop. Even though it was go go go green light that felt good you slow it down. Stopping. Not driving anywhere.

You suffer and torture yourself, putting your own self on trial. How dare you think it would be a success? Failure may still happen. What’s the point anyway? Urgh!

You restrain yourself. Where your creativity was flowing, the punishment wipes this out, you hold back. You stop putting out what you knew was the right thing to do.

Stopping the punishment

Look at your beliefs. I know, I know, not those bloody beliefs again. There is a limiting one in there somewhere. Dig it up. Question it. Explore if it’s true.

The fact you have believed the outcome/goal/end result is possible you’re playing well.

The only way any of us can know what is possible for us is when we achieve it. We don’t know what we are capable of. You can’t prove you will never reach a goal or outcome, the only truth is you haven’t achieved it yet.

Get honest. Be truthful to yourself about the end result. Understand that everything has an outcome, there is no right or bad outcome. Optimism is not the end result. Optimism is the state that says the end result is worth it.

Watch Your Language. Changing your language changes your thinking which changes your beliefs. Begin by not giving sanction (or saying) what isn’t possible.

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” Mohandaz Karamchnd Gandhi

Do you punish your optimism? Do you know why?

Stop it. Please. Seriously. I say be realistically positive!

Update: After posting this post on Facebook Jennie at JJHummingbird pointed me to this video. It’s a TED Talk by Tali Sharlot called the Optimism Bias.

Sharlot asks the questions, ‘Is optimism good for us?’ and ‘How do we maintain optimism in the face of reality?’. She argues that some people say no and choose pessimism over optimism so that they won’t be hurt or shocked if they fail, ‘If we don’t expect greatness we won’t be disappointed’.

She then flips this and says that people with higher optimism/expectations whether they succeed or fail always feel better and that regardless of the outcome, to us all feeling of anticipation makes us happy (5.28 minutes in).

I am soooooo Optimism Biased with a hint of reality.You?

Suffering From SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome)?

January 21 Dawn

I have suffered from SOS.

When running a business it’s one of the worst illnesses that will kill your mindset, productivity, sanity and ability to move forward and get stuff done. What’s sad is I see time and time again other solo biz owners being floored by it’s virus.

Back in 2008, I had it bad. Real bad. I wanted to bring my business online (successfully) and I didn’t know how to, so I went searching. I went looking for the person who had the holy grail of getting more clients. What I found was there are plenty peeps who say they have overflowing cup of marketing gold, but after following them, reading them and buying their crap (not all of it was), I realised I had been conned by a slick, hit-me-where-it’s really-painful sales messages.

Because my business was not where I wanted it to be, because I felt I was missing massive chunks of information, and because other people told me they had the solutions to all my client, marketing, attraction and mindset problems .. I would buy. I would buy every single Shiny Object.

We need clients. That’s the bottom line.

To survive even us authentic and ethical biz owners need people coming into our businesses on a regular basis.

We need to work out the best strategy to lead people in a heart-centred way to our products and services. We need systems in place where the people already looking for us are met with you coming from a place of trust saying ‘I’m here, I can help’.

Why am I telling you this?

Fooling:

Have you ever read anything like this: 7 Secrets To … The Fastest Way to Cash … How to Attract All the Clients … More Money, More Clients, More Sales the Easy and Instant Way, Your Competition is Doing This Right, Are You?

Many of them are playing to your worst nightmares and fears. Slick (and effective, but maybe not ethical) copywriting and marketing sales pages based on buying psychology, tapping into your pains and offering you easy, instant, affordable solutions.

Think about this, if it were THAT easy would you not already be doing it?

If you’re lacking in clients please don’t make my mistake and try and implement everything you have been feared into thinking you’re missing all at once. It’s not doable. And you may find you end up being out of sync for what you really stand for. Not all tactics have this effect may I add, some do work.

We (you and I) can learn every tactic and buy every shiny object, however we can’t implement ANY of them until we have a strategy.

And I’ll say this, when you are being feared by lack sales messages, you may find that don’t have all the technical knowledge and skills needed to implement these so called easy to use tactics. Example: it takes me two minutes to install a blog today and add all the bits needed to make it work, my first one took me two months and it was an ugly baby. I can add a mail form to a website (all pretty with bells on) in five mins perfectly coded. My first? About two weeks.

Learning all the techie stuff takes time, don’t be fooled by anyone who says it’s easy, it needs to be learned.

What to do once you have all the techie parts in place, takes even longer, and many little biz owners don’t even get to this part . They use the shiny object but not the strategy behind using the shiny object.

Example: adding a form to your website is the easiest part, having a system in place of what happens next, then next, then next, then next takes a heck of a lot of working out (of course you could buy pre made emails but don’t please, don’t, where is the authenticity in that?) Adding a blog? Simple. It’s how to build a successful, a client attraction blog that will take a while to learn. Thousands of pieces that need to be fired out all at once.

Shut down the noise.

I have no right really to say to you don’t buy tactics, your business is not my business. But if you’re buying because you’re scared your business is flunking, don’t buy shiny objects because you are in emergency mode. Don’t buy tactics. If you can afford it, buy someone who can help you see what you’re missing and help you focus on a strategy.

From one who knows it’s cheaper, less painful and a lot quicker than being disappointed when the Shiny Objects no longer sparkle.