Since I’m reinventing my business it’s important to identify what I don’t feel passionate about, with the current business.

What I don’t feel passionate about anymore

• Technology, especially the need to keep up with it as it changes.
• Working on tech problems as opposed to people problems.

It’s not a long list, but since the majority of work I do is related to social media technology, it’s actually significant that I’ve identified this issue and recognized I don’t feel passionate about dealing with technology issues.

What I still feel passionate about in my current business

• Social behavior on social media sites
• Business coaching
• The art of asking questions
• Empowering people with solutions

This list tells me I still like certain things about social media, but it has to do with the social interactions. I also value more people centric work in general. It lights me up when I can empower someone. Still, I feel like there’s certain things missing that I could include…

What I feel passion for and could add to my business

• Hypnosis
• Meditation
• NLP
• Reiki and energy work
• work-life balance

These are skills I have some training in and/or want to get additional training in. I feel that by not using these skills, I’m cheating myself and my clients. Using them makes me feel excited and when I can share them with other people, I know I can help those people with their problems and needs.

It’s pretty clear to me that I need to change my business to some degree. While I’ll still keep social media as a piece of it, I’m going to start emphasizing what I really feel passionate about, because I know it will find a home in the people who need those services.

What about you? Are you in touch with what you are passionate about and if so how are you applying it to your business or career?

My theme for February is Giving. To set my intention to this theme I developed goals/actions. One of my goals is to give referrals to a networking group I just joined. One of the actions I am taking is getting to know people better in this networking group and listening specifically to the types of problems they solve so that when I hear those problems from someone else, I know who to direct people to.

Setting a theme for each month can be a powerful tool for focusing your attention and intention on realizing that theme in your personal and professional live. The theme is something you bring into your life in order to improve yourself and provide a measuring stick. At the end of the month you can evaluate whether you successfully applied your theme to your life for a given month.

Join me in February to set your theme for March. I

Creativity

Persistence

Those are my three words and/or themes for 2011.

Growth refers to business growth, but also continued personal growth. It means getting more involved in my communities by contributing my expertise and skills not merely to other businesses but to my community overall.

Creativity means finishing several book projects, but it also means being more creative about how I’m getting my name, and brands out there to people. It means taking some risks and having some fun with my business. It means letting other people see more of me, because that’s where I’m most creative.

Persistence. This feels like a theme I’ve been on for a while, but it’s true that persistence pays off. For me persistence is continuing to run my business, network, and make sure people know that I exist and can help them…but it also means choosing to be persistent about my projects, to not slack, but instead follow through and get where I want to be.

What about you? What are your words or themes for this year?

I tweeted that the other night and got some responses to it. My own realization about this saying is this: You can have lots of people believe in you and support you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, none of it will matter. A person’s self-belief, or self-esteem is the seed of their success, because it’s what drives a person to do what s/he is doing. Your belief in yourself is your declaration to the universe that you are choosing to be true to yourself and create a relationship with your life that is one of meaning and satisfaction.

Your belief in yourself is what helps you take risks and what helps you learn from failure. You will fail, everyone does, but how how you handle it and the choices you make determines if your failure is a true failure or a learning experience. Personally I opt for learning experiences over failure.

Your self-belief will carry you through the days of doubt and uncertainty, and will help you soar on the days when everything is right. Your self-belief is what will sell people in investing in your services, because they will see that you know what you’re doing and that you’re not afraid to say so.

Your self belief is your greatest asset. It’s what will keep you in the game and focused on achieving your goals. It’s the seed of your success and if you actively cultivate it will bloom and so will you.

What to do when you feel overwhelmed by running your business

There are days, like today, where I feel as if I’m running around trying to bail water out of a sinking ship with a pail full of holes. Ok, that’s probably a little melodramatic, but sometimes I really do feel overwhelmed by running a business. There are so many things you need to do and only so much time to do it. And if you’re like me and you have a to-do list, it seems like everytime one item is crossed off three more appear to take its place.

Very quickly, a person can feel overwhelmed by running

Money and You

With the economy sliding into a depression, money is obviously one of the biggest concerns on anyone’s mind. Even in the best of times, money is usually a concern, because it is our survival ticket. We pay money for almost everything we acquire. Money is the both the life blood of a business and the life blood of a family. At this time, we can’t really live without it.

Lately I’ve been reading The Analects by Confucius and one of the points he makes is that people will spend three years studying for a salary, but that studying for a salary is not a good reason to study. I agree with his perspective. Doing anything for money ultimately treats money as an end goal and in the process makes it more important than anything else in your life. At the same time, the main purpose of money is forgotten. the main purpose of money is to facilitate a means to an end. In other words, money in and of itself only has value when it is used to secure goals that enrich our lives. If you work all the time and hoard your money, is it really useful? This isn’t to say you shouldn’t save money or have some put aside for hard economic times, like the current ones. But the point Confucius makes is applicable to this time as was in his. Studying with a salary in mind ignores the potential unhappiness you may feel doing that job.

The same is true for business owners. Getting into a business solely to make money is usually an equation that leads to unhappiness. People can tell if you are or are not passionate about what you are doing. And that dictates whether or not they will spend their money.

The relationship you cultivate with money is about attitude. Lots of people have written about how important it is to have a healthy attitude about money and it is important to have that healthy attitude, but part of finding that healthy attitude involves recognizing that money isn’t an end in itself. Study for three years for something you are passionate about and that passion will show up in the quality of work and consequently manifest in the money you earn.

Review: Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson

This is a must have book for anyone who’s starting or running a small business. Levinson includes tons of tactics and strategies that any small business owner can benefit from and best of all can personalize to their own advantages. I have lots of pages dog tagged in my copy, because I know I’ll be referring to them again and again and again. I also like Levinson’s style of writing; he makes readers instantly comfortable with the concepts, while also urging them to incorporate those concepts into how they do business. You can’t go wrong with GuerillaMarketing…what you can learn is how to make your business successful while spending as little as possible.

5 out of 5

My Podcast Alley feed!

****** The role of Meaning in Attitude

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The last couple of newsletters have focused on attitude and how important it is for running a business. Today I’m writing about fear, and how much fear can either motivate us to fail or motivate us to succeed.

When fear is usually written about, it’s written about as a negative experience that causes people to fail. The image we get of fear is someone who lets that fear control him or her. The person shakes in fear, and stops whatever tasks and gives up. It’s certainly true that fear can motivate us to fail and give up. Who hasn’t felt a moment of fear and wondered, “Can I really do this?” When we encounter fear in this way it can certainly be daunting to experience and may cause us to question our ability or sense of self.

However fear can motivate us to succeed. When a person feels fear because s/he doesn’t have a job, that person can be motivated to go out and apply for jobs. When a person feels fear because his/her business isn’t doing as well as s/he wants, that can also motivate the person to get creative about to promote the business.

Fear only becomes an obstacle when let it become an obstacle. We have control over fear, precisely because we do feel it and it is a reaction. When you feel fear, stop yourself from immediately reacting and ask yourself, “How can I use this fear, this emotional energy to my benefit?” Undoubtedly you will think of something that you can put that emotion toward that is healthy and beneficial.

In fact, this principle is true with emotions in general. Every emotion a person feels is a two-edged sword. Even happiness can sometimes result in a negative experience. There is no definite standard for when an emotion is positive or negative. If there is any standard, it is the actions we take, the choices we make, which determine the good or ill an emotion can cause us. So the next time you feel fear, don’t let it stop you in your tracks. Use it to motivate you to success!

Taylor Ellwood
Imagine Your Reality Coaching
503-869-0163
“I help Writers get published and small businesses attract great clients!”

The other day, I was talking with Tony, a friend of mine who also sells cars. He’s just started out, but he’s already pretty good with his job and one thing he told me about the training was that if he’s ever asked how he’s doing, he should say, “Excellent!” The reason for doing this is to convey an attitude of wanting to be there and also set the customer at ease.

This weekend I was at the Body Mind spirit Expo offering readings for interested people and every time someone asked me how I was doing, I always answered, “Excellent!” and smiled at them. I noticed that people’s spirits would perk up a bit and more than a few times my response drew people to my table where they would look at the books and sometimes have me do a reading. And throughout the day, every time I said I felt excellent to someone, I also felt excellent and upbeat. I had more fun at the expo that I’ve had at many other events and the main reason, I think, is because of choosing to say excellent, and consequently telling myself I was excellent as well.

This relates to my previous post where I discussed how attitude is central to making a business successful. While attitude doesn’t guarantee success, it does do a lot to attract people to you. The next time someone asks you how you are doing, instead of saying the traditional response of fine, try excellent or some other very positive term. You might be surprised at the response you get, both from yourself and from the other people.

Book Review: Ultimate Leadership: Winning Execution Strategies for your Situation by Russell Palmer

This book really impressed me. I liked Palmer’s style of writing, which was direct and to the point, but also very approacheable. His use of anecdotes to explain his various experiences, both good and bad, with different styles of leadership also made me very comfortable with the subject material of the book. Additionally, he wasn’t afraid to use the stories that other leaders had to offer.

However what really makes this book work is Palmer’s diverse experiences with different styles of leadership. From his suggestions about academic leadership, to the rigors of being and entrepeneur, to corporate leadership, Palmer shows what works and doesn’t work in each style of leadership.

This is a very valuable book for anyone who wants to be a leader or is a manager. Additionally, it is useful for entrepeneurs and small business owners who want to gain insight in how to best direct their efforts when deciding to lead others. Pick this up book and you’ll get some good perspectives to consider in your journey to succeed with your business.

Upcoming Class!

Inner Alchemical Balance and Healing Through Energy Work

Would you like to achieve balance in your life? If so, learning energy work can help you achieve balance in your mind, body, and life. Published author and life coach Taylor Ellwood, will teach you the basics of energy work, the connection between breath and energy, how to combine hermetic principles of the elements with energy work, secrets of Taoist and Yoga energy work and much more so that you can achieve balance in all aspects of your life.

INSTRUCTOR: Taylor Ellwood, Author of Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body

DATE & TIME: Starting Friday Oct 24^st (7-8:30) through Friday March 27^th (every other Friday)

PLACE: At the Guiding Tree at 4831 SE Division St Portland OR 97206

TUITION: $20 per class or $200 for the entire series if paid up front (you save $40 if you sign up for all the classes).

REGISTRATION: Sign up at the Guiding Tree, or call 503-239-7458 and ask to register for the Energy work class

So WHO is this class for? Anyone who feels disconnected from their body, or wants to learn how to do energy work, or wants to achieve emotional and mental balance.

WHY would anyone attend this class? Because this is a chance to learn how to use energy work to empower yourself and achieve balance in all aspects of your life.

WHAT will you learn if you show up?

* Taoist and Yoga techniques for energy work
* How to communicate with and heal your body and mind.
* How to apply principles of Hermetic Magic to Energy Work

* How you can use energy work in your office or home to dissolve tensions and create a harmonious atmosphere
* And more!

Is this class a good use of your precious time? You’ve got Taylor’s Guarantee: If you don’t feel that you