Rise Up

I like to think of myself as a helium balloon rising up to the holy grail of my potential in this life time. Yeah, maybe a bit out there, but it works for me. The kicker is, that attached to my helium balloon is a string with a series of weights that make the rising of my balloon a manageable and comfortable pace of climb so as not to shoot up too quickly only to explode under the pressure.

BUT, by committing to the climb (the ongoing pursuit of development and growth) in my life, there inevitably comes a time where the heaviest weight, stops allowing me to progress and starts to pull against my growth. This is not good. This shows up in things like: a job that no longer excites you and/or allows you to learn, a relationship with a boss or co-worker that you once saw as a mentor that now you look at with frustration, a gym workout that puts you through the motions, but no longer produces positive results. What does this all mean? It’s time to drop that heavy weight!

Letting go in life is tough. It means leaving what is, what you know, what feels safe and stepping in to the mystery of life. This is not easy. It requires consciousness, because only when you’re conscious would you even notice that something is weighing you down in the first place. It requires a commitment to make the necessary change. It requires a plan in which you’ll take the necessary steps to make the change and it requires bravery when you step out and start the movement of taking action.

Take a conscious look at your life this week and ask yourself – am I being ‘weighed’ down by anything right now? The clues will be in your feelings. If you are, commit to letting it go, create a plan to do so and step in to the mystery of life with brave curiosity. Only then, can you again RISE UP!

My Interview: Exceptional Women Northwest

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Doug Zanger on his Portland based radio show, Exceptional Women Northwest. I have to thank Danielle Laporte over at White Hot Truth for recommending me to Doug. This was my FIRST ever radio interview and it was such a treat!

Click the below link to listen in:

The Interview…

Vision Boards

A vision board is simply a pictorial representation of your own personal answers to the question: what do I want?  

I’ve been successfully using vision boards for over four years and they have been incredibly helpful to keep me focussed on those things which are most important to me.  There is some scientific research to support the fact that having specific goals in your life and referencing them daily (have your vision board somewhere that you see it everyday) will enable you to recognize opportunities and therefore reach your goals more quickly and efficiently.  But, more than anything, creating a vision board is a lot of fun.  It’s an opportunity for you to be creative and to be bold.  So what if you can’t afford the car of your dreams today; go down to the dealership, get a brochure, sit in the car, smell it, touch it, get a photo of you in it and then put all the material up on your vision board.

A vision board is an opportunity for you to remove the word “can’t” from your vocabulary and to go crazy as you answer the question: What do I want?

What do you want to be? (doctor, lawyer, singer, base jumper, author, actor, golfer, police officer…)

What do you want to do? (own your own business, travel the word for a year, enter a debating contest…)

What do you want to have? (your dream car, dream home, a new guitar, a scooter….)

What is stopping you from getting visual imagery of the things that you want most in your life, putting them up on a board and taking a look at them everyday?  If nothing else, it’s a “feel good” tool for you to reference daily and realize how many opportunities there are in this life.

There are no “rules” when it comes to vision boards.  It’s a personal thing and it’s an opportunity for you to do what feels right to you.  I have vision boards all over.  I have large poster board types that hang in my office, I use scrapbooks that I carry with me; they even have an application on Facebook where you can create a vision board right on your profile.

Be creative, don’t hold back.  Cut out pictures from magazines, include inspirational or motivational quotes that you like, you can print pictures off the internet that are of interest to you – it’s totally open ended.  The important thing is to DO it.  Just go out there, get yourself a poster board and make your first vision board today – you won’t regret it!!

Check out: My Inspiration Place for reference materials that will inspire!

Living your Dreams

There is one definite inevitability in life and that is, of course, death. Not usually a topic that most people want to talk about or frankly think about, but, nevertheless something that we cannot escape. Personally, my consideration of the concept is something that has given me an incredible amount of strength thus far. Whenever I have a desire to do something really big, there is the almost immediate reaction from my mind. Sometimes it tells me why I can’t do it, sometime why I shouldn’t, sometimes it just laughs at my plans. I’ve heard many theories about why this happens, why we get in our own way, why we stop ourselves from giving something a try? But the bottom line is, if we truly want to do whatever it is, have whatever it is, be whatever it is, and it is our true, inner hearts desire – we simply have to go for it!

When we lost the patriarch of our family 5 years ago I think we all felt the tug of ‘I don’t want my life to pass me by, having not lived my dream’. Myself, my 3 siblings and my Mum have all since gone on to do some of the most incredible things. Though the pain of loss that we all endured will forever shape the way we view the world and though we’d all love to have him back, even just for a day, to ask a certain question or extend that special message of gratitude – I also believe we saw the opportunity in our circumstance and each of us embraced it and our lives are better, richer and more fulfilled because of it.

Whenever I’m scared about whatever leap I’m contemplating taking, or when worry tries to take over my mind I watch the below video. The man on the video, Randy Paucsh, is now famous for his message The Last Lecture. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. And in this, his last lecture, he gives a moving, practical, matter of fact speech about how and why to live a life in pursuit of your dreams. There is no time to put things off – we have to pursue those things that we have a desire to – we have to live our dreams!

Winds of Change

I recently had the great opportunity to meet up with Jivi Khehra, the face, voice and spirit behind the phenomenon Winds of Change. Her philosophy is simple – embrace change and celebrate the possibilities in life – talk about right up my ally!

She wrote the most incredible blog post about our first encounter where she described me as “the most charismatic, full of energy, and business savvy person I have met” WOW – what a compliment! – read her full post here.

And you can check out the Winds of Change TV Show Here:

Authentically Passionate: A Lesson from a Night with a DJ

There is nothing that is more attractive to me than passion. Someone who is enthusiastic, authentic and in total LOVE with what they are doing.  - (I made that up, so you can quote me.)

The other night I was at a networking event and though the organizers (god love them, as it was a great event) claimed to be doing something ‘different’, it was pretty much biz as uge. Arrive, have a cocktail and some snacks, mingle mingle, network network and then there’s a speaker (in this case there were 2) followed by Q&A, door prizes and then disperse.

And although I have no complaints, and certainly nothing negative to say about the event, it just didn’t stand out to me. Except for one thing – the DJ, Joe. Joe was awesome. Any time he was able to ‘do his thing’ (during the mingling portion of the evening) he would be completely in to what he was doing. He had a kinda half smile the whole time, the kind you’d see on a 3 year olds face the first time they experience play dough. All excited and happy, while concentrated, and engaged at the same time. Part way through the night I went to introduce myself to him and tell him just how inspired I had been watching him all night and it was clear that he was enjoying every moment of what he was doing. We got to talking and he told me that this was his last night at this venue. When I asked him if that was cool with him or if he was disappointed – he quickly jumped in to say he was thrilled. He believed it was just a sign that something even better for him was around the corner and he was excited to find out what was in store. In the meantime, he already has a few regular gigs, never one to put all his eggs in one basket. All I could think was, how cool is it, that out of a sea of 100 people, I had managed to seek out another passionate, abundantly minded, enthusiastic, and authentic being AND he was the DJ, he wasn’t even attending the event.

Furthermore I started thinking – I’m lucky (by choice) - I spend most of my time with my family, my business partners, my team, my clients or my close friends – all of whom pretty much think the same way I do. Anything is possible. I can make it happen. I’m willing to take 100% responsibility for myself, my life and my choices. I am willing to do the work in getting to know myself and what I want. Furthermore I will ask for what I want in my life.  I don’t give my time or energy to drama. I concentrate on how I can. – I could go on and on but I think you get the pic.

And so often times for me, it’s more rare and usually only in bigger social scenes, like networking events that I run in to, well let’s just say, people that think a bit differently than what I’ve described above. To grossly generalize they like to talk about – the economic climate, how tough it is, how busy they are, how hard they are ‘trying’, how much work they’re putting in, etc. and all I can think is – you should stop doing what you’re doing and try something else – maybe DJing? You should keep trying new things, while you simultaneously get to know your authentic self, eventually arriving at a place where you know who you are, you know what you want, you go out there and take responsibility for your life, your results, and you make it happen. You don’t blame, you don’t complain, you don’t say things just out of habit. You think, you feel, you engage and you LIVE your life. Doing this = authentically passionate (I made this up too, so I hope I’m making sense.)

And that’s how I felt when I saw DJ Joe – I felt like he was 100% his authentic self, loving every moment of what he was doing and after talking with him I learned his attitude simply was – “if I keep doing what I love, I will continue to find arenas that allow me to do what I love”.

In closing, I leave you to ponder a thought that I often do:

I wonder if everyone knew that the key to life running like a smooth river current, always in ‘the flow’, was as simple as 2 words: authentically passionate – would I ever have to have another conversation about the ‘recession’?

Keep having fun!

Heather

Contracts, Rules & Boundaries

This week I had 3 different clients struggle with how to handle a difficult customer. Though the stories, circumstances and details were all different, the theme was the same. In each case my client’s feathers were ruffled as a result of their client crossing a boundary. The interesting part, however, was that after digging a bit deeper in to each case, I discovered the boundary that had been crossed was one that had never been clearly communicated in the first place.

Enter contracts, rules & boundaries, engagement letters, MOU’s etc. There is a reason that since the beginning of time professional relationships have been governed by these kinds of documents. Why? So that everyone knows, understands, and has been clearly communicated with about what each persons roles, expectations, deliverables and consequences are, should they not adhere to the agreement. But aside that, it makes it so that when someone steps outside of the agreement, it is not a personal attack, when you call them out on it.

For example. One of the stories this week involved and overbearing and in fact a client who was turning in to downright bully. She would be calling my client all night long (well after hours), on the weekend, and not just that, she would call/email/text incessantly, over and over again, which was causing my client to hit the ultimate PANIC button. In addition, this client would be brash, rude and raise her voice on the phone – would ask for something to be done, then decide she didn’t want it – leaving my client with unpaid invoices and conflict filled conversations.

When I asked my client if it had always been this way with her client – she said no, in the beginning the client had been enjoyable to work with, but as time had gone on she had increased her demand and eventually started this kind of insane behaviour. What kind of contract or agreement did you have her sign – I innocently asked, instinctively knowing the answer. And you guessed it – there was no contract in place.

This was so easily avoidable – with the communication and accompanying document outlining the rules and boundaries around engaging with my client and her services – we would have never gotten here. The good news is that together we’re putting this imperative piece in place within her business model so that moving forward, this will never happen again.

But let this be a lesson to all in ensuring that no matter how much you like a person, your professional relationships should never get personal. The way to avoid this, is have the difficult conversations up front. Make sure that everyone’s role within the professional relationship is defined, and the rules and boundaries are discussed and there is a plan of action for moving away from the professional relationship at any time. From there, put it all in writing and sign off on it. I promise that by doing this you will avoid all kinds of pain in the long run.

All the best!

Heather

Best Affirmation Ever

Blessing In Disguise?

It finally happened…..3 years in to my MacBook and over the weekend the battery (or at least what I thought was the battery) died. Couldn’t get the thing to turn on. At first, I was simply grateful that I had indeed stuck to my plan of finishing off all my loose ends on Friday before starting the long weekend. But, after I made a trip to the apple store, came home with a brand new battery, popped it in, and then it still wouldn’t work – this was when the subtle panic and body sweats began. OMG! What’s wrong with my computer?!?!?

So, what’s a girl to do? Simple answer – genius appointment booked at the Apple store the following day….

So there I was standing outside the store waiting for it to open (I got the first appt. of the day) and I started to notice my fears that were bubbling up subtly. And at the bottom of all the little “I wonder what’s wrong” thoughts, I noticed I was simply afraid that I was going to have to shell out a bunch of cash that I hadn’t anticipated on spending. That was the bottom line.

But this presented an even bigger dilemma. Having been a student of various coaching and training programs, and have read hundreds of books on personal development, the law of attraction etc. I knew I couldn’t focus and dwell on that which I did not want!!!

So instead I thought about how much I loved my MacBook, how amazing a partner it has been in the development of my business, how it has facilitated my life for the past 3 years, with banking, blogging, facebook and twitter and how it had allowed me to connect with and meet so many amazing people. I sent it love and light as if it was a friend with the flu. Consoled it by assuring it, we were at the doctors to get it checked out and make it all better! Crazy you think? Here’s what happened next…..

The gentleman in the Apple store whom my genius appointment was with was awesome! He checked over everything and yes, it was simply the battery. The new one that I had bought the day before needed to be ’set up’ which I had done incorrectly (shocker) and he did a couple of other things that made it work beautifully again! And then he said…”did you know we can replace that?” (“That” was my dash that had been cracking over the past couple of years where the magnets attach). “No, I didn’t, how much is that?” I innocently asked. “FREE” he said. FREE??!?!?!??!? Is anything free anymore?

So of course I said “YES”, please fix that for me for free! Then he checked with the back and they could do it right away, which they did and 30 minutes later I was back in the store to pick it up. And I had apparently misunderstood what they were going to do because they replaced the entire keyboard including a new track pad and click bar (like my technical terms for computer parts?). The entire thing looked brand new – all the dirty keys, evidence of 3 years of use, were gone, replaced by white, clean, glistening keys.

The joke around our house for the rest of the weekend was “remember when you went in to the Apple store to get a new battery and came out with a new computer?”

The whole experience just reminded me about ‘blessings in disguise’, because part of me was genuinely upset about the copmuter dying. Not that I was mad that I had to get a new battery, but, more so, the not really knowing what was wrong, and if it could be fixed and how much it would cost etc. But instead, as a result of having the battery die, I ended up with this new facelift for my beloved bessie mate (my MacBook) who is now all nice and clean and has a brand new battery! Yay! And now I can honestly say “thank you” to that old battery for dying because I got all this because of it.

Let this be a lesson to all (including myself). Sometimes things look a certain way – and may appear to be negative in their circumstance, when beneath the surface lies a blessing in disguise.

Anyone had a similar experience?? Share your story….

All the best,

H

Don’t get Uninvited to the Social Media Party

Would you go to a dinner party and announce upon arrival “Hi everyone, thanks for inviting me to the party, I don’t care about any of you, and please don’t talk to me,  I’m just here to tell you what I think and to show off my new dress!”???

I hope not!!

And yet I often here people announcing this kind of ridiculous statement on social media forums. Social media was not created so that you could blast people with your marketing messages. It was created for you to be social and the same social etiquette that you would display meeting people face to face should be honoured. You learn a little about them, then you share a bit about you. You look to establish some common ground, build rapport and if you have a connection, you’ll probably follow that inkling and stay connected long after the party. If it turns out that there is value in doing business together – bonus!

Social media is a wonderful tool that allows you to cast your net far wider than these traditional face to face strategies, BUT, it’s still a two way street. Connecting, sharing information, asking questions, and yes making statements are all part of it, but attempting to use it as a one way street for marketing yourself or your business will lead to the ultimate social media fail! Nothing turns me off more than hearing people say “I caved” to social media. Then add to that, “I’m only here for marketing purposes”. Really??  That makes me think, “hmm, you’re running a business, and yet you can’t  make decisions for yourself, you’ll resolve to being ‘bullied’ in to doing things and you take no ownership of your business development choices.

As a business coach and advisor to businesses all over North America I preach the same business fundamentals that have supported development since the beginning of time. Visibility (if no one knows you’re there, they can’t do business with you), Credibility (if you can’t do what you say you can, you’re dead in the water and it’s only a matter of time until you’re called out) Profitability (Yes, it’s true, you have to make some money), Sustainability (once you’ve built something profitable the next question should be: can it hold weight without you being there 24/7) and finally Scalability (Can you take what you’ve built and see it exponentially scale out through leveraging all your developed systems?)

Social media is another tool in an plethora of choices that support businesses in following these crucial steps. It’s not a quick fix, or a hail mary pass. It needs to be treated like every other tool. Learn how to use it, as it was intended, decide if that use fits for your business development model, if it does, choose to use it. Start walking with it, then jogging, and eventually sprinting along seeing it’s true power support your business development initiatives.

Don’t be the one sitting at home alone because you’ve been uninvited  to the party.