Receiving is a huge part of the equation in life - without receiving, you become burnt out, stressed out, tired… you get the idea.

How do you know if you’re open to receiving? One big tell tale sign is to determine how you respond to compliments. When someone pays you a compliment - do you immediately dismiss it? Do you shrug it off and make an excuse? Do you graciously say thank you and then become a little embarrassed?

Or - do you accept their compliment and enjoy that feeling of love?

If you openly accept the compliment, you are in receiving mode. If, however you shrug it off, or dismiss it - you’re probably not a good receiver.

Why do we become bad receivers?

Sometimes, we’re afraid to appear better than someone else. Sometimes, we don’t feel worthy for one reason or another.

If you recognize that you have trouble receiving, I encourage you to spend some time determining why that might be.

If you make a habit of closing yourself off to simple things - like compliments, changes are good you’re closing yourself off to the bigger things the Universe is trying to give you as well.

How are you a good receiver? Do you know how to “allow” in your life - or do you always feel like you’re pushing against the current?

We had a mini-vacation this past weekend at a GREAT family amusement park near Danville, PA. Knoebels is a must do if you’re near the area. The prices are awesome and it was PERFECT for kids. You can’t believe how beautiful this park is - it’s tucked in the mountains of central PA - you don’t even know there’s a park there until you pull in and can see the Ferris Wheel above the trees.

Here is a shot of Madd and I on the Tea Cups:

Maddie also rode both roller coasters - she even sat in the FRONT car of the Phoenix. She loved it!!

Here’s a shot of her and Daddy - this was her favorite ride with Daddy:

We had a wonderful time - hard to believe it’s almost back to school!

One thing entrepreneurs can struggle with is, how to stay focused, and how to not let negativity and stress take over during the times when it seems nothing is moving in their business. The key to attracting what you want in your business, and staying focused on your ultimate vision of success is to remain aligned with the things you want. And the key to staying in alignment with what you do want is to check in with your emotions.

When you are in a negative emotional pattern – for example, when you’re feeling angry, sad, or frustrated, it’s a sign that you are out of alignment, or that you are thinking about what you don’t want. During your day, if you realize you’re in a negative emotional pattern, tune in to what it is that you’re thinking about. If you find that you’re thinking about what you don’t want, shift your thinking. There are a few ways to do this.

First, be very clear about exactly what you want. Write down your goals, and write out a clear vision for the way you want your life to be. The more clear you can be, and the more details you can include in your vision, the easier it will be to shift your thinking from what you don’t want, to what you do want.

Another tool you can use to raise your emotional vibration is to keep a gratitude journal. Take some time each day and write out the things that you are grateful for. Not only will this remind you of all the wonderful things you have in your life, but it will show you all of the great things you’ve already attracted and accomplished. And if you can attract and accomplish all of these wonderful things – that’s proof that you can attract anything you want!

Action is also very powerful for changing your outlook. Even if you take a small step toward your goal, it can completely change your mood. For example, if you envision yourself writing and publishing a book, but just feel as though you’re too busy in your current schedule, begin your book by creating the outline. Just taking that small step will help you focus on what you do want, and will raise your emotional vibration.

There are many tools you can use to raise your vibration. Remember – your emotions are the key to determining what you’re focusing on – and therefore, what you’re attracting. When you are happy, and thinking about what you do want, you’re naturally taking steps to accomplish your goal.

If you would like more tips and tricks for getting into a positive mind-set, check out the podcast I did this week with my friend Tonya Ramsey. We talked about how to stay positive when life gets crazy. Also, if you’re looking for a way to integrate Law of Attraction concepts into your life, and make abundance your default setting, check out my Law of Attraction Immersion Kit – it’s the last product on that page.

Here is a question that I ran across in my journey this week, and wanted to post it here for discussion:

How can I sit back, breathe deep, and begin to draw toward me effortless clients?

I love this question. It really made me sit and think about exactly how the Law of Attraction, and my own actions would bring me effortless clients. And, in my mind, effortless clients are those clients who, are committed to their own growth - so they take action without hesitation, and ask for help and clarity when they need it. They are energized. And, effortless clients also encompasses having clients flowing toward me - as opposed to being chased down (LOL!).

So - my question to you is, how can you sit back, breathe deep, and begin to draw toward you effortless clients?

I was reading Andrea Lee’s blog and she offers this:

“How might you be giving too much power away to others? Do you try to ‘be like’ someone, model yourself on someone or someones, a little too much?It’s fine to follow footsteps but not with your head down. When you’re taking a walk in the woods, if you don’t lift your head, it doesn’t matter if you’ve arrived at a beautiful meadow, does it?”

WHOA. That’s a thinker for sure.This very topic has been on my mind quite a bit lately and I’ve actually talked about it with several friends.

In the industry that I’m in, there is a particular coach who has many, many followers. You can pretty much tell who they are… they all use the same e-mail template, they all use almost the same web site techniques - but most notably - they all talk about how much money they make while working almost no hours (I’m going to blog about this last point later in the week, but for now, let’s talk about blazing your own trail…).

So anyway, I keep running across these graduates of this particular person, and I’m very happy that they are seeing so much success. That’s awesome - because the more success we all see as a whole, the more success there is to gain for everyone.

But anyway, way back when I was just starting my coaching business, I almost fell into line with all of these other people and felt that maybe I too, should follow this prescribed way of building a business.

But - every time I took a step in that direction… when I went to purchase a product from this coach, or when I went to change something about the way I was doing things to fall in line with this person… I resisted.

And, for a while, I had a battle raging inside my head. You see, something about the way this person sold her coaching, and the way she conducted herself just didn’t sit right with me. Now, she’s not a bad person… and she’s extremely knowledgeable. However - just something about her methods did not fully resonate with me.

So, the battle would go something like this “Gee… I see all these people being so successful doing the same things that this person does… maybe I should do them too…. Hmmm… something about it just doesn’t feel right - I’m going to do things my way. But - wait - she DOES have good information… and she seems to know what she’s talking about - maybe I’m wrong, maybe I won’t be successful until I do it HER way…”

And therein lies the problem - me thinking I’m wrong for doing things the way I want to do them - for thinking I’m wrong because my way isn’t exactly like this person’s way.

I finally came to the realization that, if I’m out of alignment with my authentic self, my business won’t be hugely successful no matter who I try to follow… or copy. I wasted so much energy with that scattered focus.

I love what Andrea Lee offers in her blog post - it rings incredibly true for me.

You do not have to copy someone else’s success - you can forge your own… in a way that is completely authentic to you.

What’s stopping you from blazing your own trail?

There are so many marketing activities out there to choose from, you don’t have to engage in anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. There is plenty you can do for your business without doing something that doesn’t feel right.

If you are doing something to promote your business because you feel you “have to,” that’s a good sign that you should give that activity up in exchange for something you really love doing.

For example, I hate to cold call. I absolutely will not do it. It’s not right for me, and I will not engage in it. I once took a business class from someone who belonged to the “old boys club” (and no, I’m not bashing men… but this person was really rigid in his thinking… drove me crazy…). He insisted that to be successful, I had to engage in cold calling. At the time, I owned my handmade toiletries business. To this day, I’m not sure he REALLY understood my business…

Anyway…

The point is - do what you love when it comes to marketing your business.

One of my favorite marketing activities is networking. Networking provides me with a way to meet new people and to engage in conversation, and to help out when someone has a question, or needs some input.

I’m a huge fan of online networking. I do some local networking, but online networking suits my busy schedule.

What activities do you like?

Is there a magic marketing bullet that will break your business into massive success? Um… well… no… but - it’s not hard to create massive success with your marketing efforts.

Ah entrepreneurship. Visions of working from our home office, in the comfort of our pajamas, doing a job we love, bringing in loads of money. It is this dream that excites many of us.

But what is the key to bringing in the loads of money? Exposure, of course! You must get your name out there to many people – to thousands of people. No matter what business you are in, if you do not promote yourself, you will not have customers, and then you won’t be in business very long.

There are many techniques that we can do to promote our businesses. But, to be honest, there is not one single technique that is going to break your business wide open. The thing that will break your business wide open is consistent, persistent, massive action in your business.

This is not as big and scary as it sounds – I promise. What I mean by persistent, consistent, massive action is that you must take many different types of action to get your name in front of as many people as possible. The larger the audience, the better your results. And, you must be in front of your niche. For example, my services are not going to appeal to CEO’s of fortune 500 companies. So, even if I’m in front of 10,000 of them, my results aren’t going to be stellar. Now, being in front of 10,000 women entrepreneurs – that will yield great results for me.

Look at your current marketing efforts. How many hours do you spend on marketing per week? As an entrepreneur, you should be spending 2 to 3 hours per day, if not more, on your marketing efforts. I’ve even heard some experts say that you should spend 2/3 of your time on marketing – and that’s not a bad idea. A majority of your time should be spent on marketing – until you have enough consistent business for that to shift – then you’ll be spending just slightly more time on your marketing than you will on working with customers or clients.

Surprising? Many entrepreneurs don’t realize that marketing is the single most important task in your business. They often think that working with clients is A#1. And yes – working with clients is undeniably important, and you should give ultimate care and service to your clients. However, marketing is what is going to bring you the clients to work with!

The key with your marketing efforts is to make a plan, and work on it consistently. One huge mistake I often see with marketing is entrepreneurs feel their efforts aren’t paying off, so they stop. You cannot ever stop marketing. Think about the huge companies that are well known to us. Does Coca-Cola market their products? Yep. How about Nike? Absolutely. What about Gaiam? They sure do. All of these companies have huge exposure – and whole departments devoted to marketing and advertising. Why? Because it’s that important for them to keep their name in front of everyone.

It’s just as important for small businesses as well. If the big guys have to keep marketing – so do you.

Choose marketing activities that you love and work them consistently. Keep extending your reach by finding new ways to apply your techniques. For example, if you love to write articles, look for article banks online, or offline publications that you can submit to. You WILL see results – I promise. It probably will not be over night, but your efforts will pay off.

It’s a common mis-conception to believe that there is one “magic marketing bullet” that will break you out into success. Overnight successes are extremely rare. A good start is 2 to 3 hours per day of marketing activities, getting your name out there to as many people as possible, and consistent effort.

Let’s talk about Hard Work, shall we?

I wanted to post about this last week, but I hadn’t finished formulating my thoughts around it quite yet - until this morning… when I received a blog post from Cristina and she just added fuel to my fire Cristina and I are definitely on the same wave-length and I ADORE her post. She talks about an info product that she purchased for $97, and it had typo’s… and some other issues.

Anyway - the person she bought the product from is a 6 figure entrepreneur (way cool), but Cristina’s point is - if you are someone of that caliber - shouldn’t you produce QUALITY?? Um - yes, IMO, you should.

This is probably going to be a long post - so settle in… got your coffee? Good!

I am having issue lately with some pretty heavy-hitting Internet Marketing Gurus. I’m not going to name names, but I’m sure you’ll know the type… you know - the people out there who constantly talk about how much money they make and how little they work.

I simply MUST take issue with this… because my clients come to me after reading all of the “stuff” from these gurus, and they are completely frustrated because they are STILL working non-stop - which seems incongruent, because these gurus keep saying that they only work 2 hours per day and they make $50,000 per month…

So let’s delve into it and de-mystify it a bit, shall we?

I have two problems with this type of promotion.

1. If I am a customer - I am paying to have exposure to the expert. I do not want to spend my money with someone who is telling me how LITTLE they work. If I’m giving you my money, and you’re telling me that you never work - how on Earth are you going to help me if I have a question with your information?

By telling me how little you work, are you saying to just expect you to not ever get back to me if I need a brief moment of your time? And have you seen the cost of some of these products?? You want me to spend WHAT? to not have access to you?

2. I believe that these “gurus” are just causing way more frustration. Entrepreneurs are definitely delighted by the idea of barely working and making tremendous money. But I don’t think the entire picture is presented… it can’t be - because I have many clients come to me at the end of their rope. They’ve purchased $1,000’s of dollars worth of these types of products, followed the steps and STILL they are working 40+ hours per week to make their business happen.

Or - they come to me not understanding why they have to work so damn hard and all of these other people seem to just coast by.

Ok - let’s shed some light on this…

First off - to build a business - it takes work. You are not going to start your business today, and be making 6 figures in 6 months - UNLESS - you already have a pretty big audience.

Your business is where your passion, your purpose and your ability to connect with your niche combine.

And that last piece is the money piece - your ability to connect with your niche.

What that means is - you must be in front of 1,000’s and 1,000’s of people in order to be making 6 figures.

It’s a numbers game. The statistic on the street is, a 1% response rate for your marketing efforts is a good response rate.

Sobering - isn’t it.

Think about that - if you only have 300 people on your list right now, 1% is THREE people. And that’s considered a good response rate.

So - the bigger you build your list - or - the more exposure you have - the better your 1% looks.

So, yes, some of these guru’s only have to work a few hours a day to make a killing - but how big is their list, and how long have they been in the game??

The longer you’re in business, the bigger your list, right? So, sure, you too can be making a boatload of money and not breaking your neck, but it takes building that list first. And that is going to come with consistent action, time, and the right mind-set.

Yes, I have seen all the success stories and testimonials on these sites. But, I always question - how far along were these people in business BEFORE they took this class? How big was their list at the outset?

Yes - I know - I’ve seen the testimonials where they say “oh - I JUST started my business and I took this program - I went from 0 to 10,000 on my list in 6 months.”

Ok - but how many people did that person know already? How aggressively did they market themselves to get to that point?

What I don’t like is that there is an impression here that hardly any work was done from day one… and I just refuse to believe that is possible.

After working with many, many entrepreneurs, hearing their stories, listening to what REALLY goes on in our home offices - what I have found is that it takes work.

No if’s and’s or but’s about it - you MUST work your business. You must consistently do 2 to 3 hours of marketing PER DAY to get your name out there. And you must get yourself in front of larger and larger groups of people.

You’ve got to do the work. There is no other way to go about it. You have to take action - and it does not happen over night.

Can you have a money-making business within a year? Absolutely. I believe that, no question. Will it be 6 figures in that amount of time? That depends on your exposure. It takes a well thought-out plan, and consistent, massive action in your business.

I want to say that I work hard in my business and I’m proud of it. Why has “hard work” gotten such a bad wrap lately?? I just don’t get it. Yes, when I was in a corporate job, I worked hard and it sucked. I worked long hours away from my family - and it was stressful.

In my business now, I do not work 2 hours per day. I work about 30 hours per week - give or take. And I LOVE it. I adore what I do. I love my clients, I love the contacts I’ve made through my business, I love what I create - I love it all!

The difference in my mind is, I don’t stress, I don’t strain, and I don’t agonize. My schedule is flexible. I can come and go as I want - I can take days off to be with my daughter, I don’t have to ask permission to stay home when she’s sick…

Now - I have to make up that time in my business - but again - I LOVE what I do and WANT to spend the time doing it.

As an entrepreneur - it is not my goal to NOT work. It is my goal to do what I love and be prosperous in ALL areas of my life.

So, anyone that’s ever been frustrated by these claims of not working and making a boatload of money - you are not alone.

If you are interested in a program like that, really take the time to see what bang you get for your buck. Really take the time to read between the lines. If you have questions, please, feel free to contact me. I’ve spent time with lots of entrepreneurs who have tried just about all of them.

WHEW! Now that I’m done my rant - what are your opinions on this? Have you tried any of these programs? Have they worked? Also - if you seriously built your business from nothing to mega-bucks in a short amount of time, I want to hear about it. And, I want the REAL stories. If you’re going to share a story like that, I want numbers and proof to back it up. I’m willing to be schooled on this subject, but you have to have proof.