Body Says What?

I was challenged last week to identify 2 business activities I would select if I could only work 10 hours a week (sound familiar?), with an instruction to assume that the finances would be fine and other business tasks would be handled by other people. Great question, one I endeavor to help my clients answer, too. Out of habit I wrote coach for the 1st activity, but when I looked at the word I didn’t feel it in my heart. It felt bland and I watched as my body “rejected” it. Of course, since I’ve been coaching for 12 years this was a little troubling. Even so, I persisted. I erased the word “coach,” and watched as new words took form on the page. Talk to people about the mysteries of the body and the wisdom within. Ohhh. I felt the truth of this one. Bland turned into light. In an instant, seemingly peripheral interests came together in this one sentence. Shortly after college I worked in a pediatric clinic, and I loved it. To help me do my job as a “utilization review” assistant at hospital one summer I took a medical terminology course, and loved it. At one Read More…

From Adversity to Opportunity: 3 Talks Next Week

I mentioned in my last blog post where I talked about my Sedona adventures that I finally ‘woke up’ a few days after being back in the office to realize I have, not 2, but 3 presentations next week. Fortunately (for me) there is a theme to these discussions, including the Lifework Cafe Chat on February 6th. 2 Reasons I dubbed February “from adversity into opportunity” month It is the month of love and I can think of no better way to love yourself than to look for the gifts hidden in your illness or body sensitivities. Speaking of those gifts, when it comes to business a lot of people work long, long hours. When you have all the time and energy in the world to work it is much easier to be less than effective with your time. We who have limited time and energy for business HAVE to figure out how to best use that time or we are sunk. This is a gift of huge proportions. We have a chance to bring sanity back to business operations. 3 Ways to Join a Discussion Next Week February 5th – 12:00 to 1:00 pm PST Join me at a Read More…

Set Boundaries with Clients to Improve Effectiveness

Myth:  If you want to be successful in business you must be immediately responsive to client requests, no matter how inconvenient or unreasonable. If you don’t you’ll lose business. Truth:  If you want to build a sustainable business, you have the right to establish guidelines that enable you to respond to reasonable requests in a reasonable time frame. The best clients for your business will understand and respect reasonable guidelines. When business owners are feeling stressed about client demands, I encourage them to establish guidelines for “The Way We Do Things Around Here” (TWWDTAH) to remind them that this is their business, and therefore their right/ obligation to clarify best practices. TWWDTAH guidelines can cover the following situations: Responding to requests by existing customers Responding to requests from prospective customers Establishing working agreements with new clients Billing, payment and invoicing Pricing services and packages Three Owners Upgrade TWWDTAH and Improve their Results The owner of a growing financial planning firm was doing very well, yet was overworked and frustrated by his inability to get a handle on his to-do list. Upon revisiting his business revenue model, he decided it was time to institute an entirely new fee schedule and establish Read More…