Have you ever thought about how the art of a single individual has touched the world? Even changed the world? One person can have that big of an impact.

It’s easy to look around at our immediate surroundings and the people close to us and see that yes, we effect the lives of many people. Do we always see the impact we make on a bigger scale? The reciprocal benefit of words that we say to someone? When we say something to someone just when they need to hear it can change someone’s day? Or when we go the extra step and help someone and they in turn help someone else. One of my favorite things to witness is karma in action on a NYC subway. When a musician plays for money or a needy mom with a babe in arms begs, as soon as one person gives you’ll see many people digging in their pockets. It takes just one person to get the ball rolling. Or a pregnant woman steps on the train and as soon as one person offers a seat everyone re-evaluates who they might offer their seat to. Perhaps an elderly person who was standing. The actions of the one individual trickles down and effects many.

We go about our lives with these little moments sometimes not having any idea how we’re impacting someone else’s day or life. I believe that small business owners have a particular role to play in this. It is through the business and the increased exposure being in business offers that the small business owner can truly make a difference in their community and the world. Isn’t it true that we typically define whether service we receive is good or bad usually by the small businesses around us? To some extent we’ve given up on service with the big companies. We accept the norm and are thrilled when we receive better than usual service. But walking into your local business or having a professional service provider come to your home can change your day. Hopefully in the best possible way.

I know it’s a tall order but one of my objectives as a business coach to small business owners is to change the world one entrepreneur at a time. I support them to serve their clients in a particular way, which enhances the client’s experience, which results in spreading the word, which increases business, which offers the business opportunity to do more, and so on….

One small business in one community. One community in a bigger world. Yes, we are never too small to make a big impact.

It is a common trait amongst successful people that what they do, their chosen career or work, serves as the way to their greater purpose. This is what I love about business coaching. People most often come to me for coaching thinking what they most want is to increase their business. The indicator to me that this person has what it takes to be highly successful is when it is clear that they feel they are on a greater mission. That they want to serve the world in some bigger way. Or that they have something to prove to themselves. Their business or career then is a platform for a greater good.

This understanding brings out a clarity that being business-minded isn’t a sell-out, or a conflict or even insurmountable. A successful business then becomes the vehicle to do more good. Look at Oprah. Who can deny that her financial success and highly visible platform enabled her to do even more good in the world. Or Bill Gates. You don’t have to be a celebrity. These are just extreme examples.

It’s having a priority for being business-minded so that you can serve in a way that’s most meaningful to you that creates a prosperous business, a meaningful life and a better world through what you do with your success. Only then is mission accomplished.

Often a change of perspective can help. I have a free eGuide- “Change Your Perspective, Change Your Business”, that my serve you well. Grab it here.

How willing are you to receive prosperity? Or an abundant life? Most of us think we are far more willing than we actually are. We seem to struggle to see what is RIGHT about ourselves and focus on what is wrong. In my opinion, the greatest work ever written is the poem “Our Deepest Fear” by Marianne Williamson. As she so beautifully points out, “who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous”? Do we not almost always question our worth?

How one sees their worth is directly related to their willingness to receive. I don’t mean this in a boastful or certainly not in an entitled way like,”I deserve….blah, blah, blah”. But truly in a self respectful acknowledgement of one’s self that you’ve taken the right steps, lived an honorable life, done so with the best intentions and accept that you are in fact creative, resourceful, whole, brilliant, talented, gorgeous and fabulous.

Then you can receive prosperity. Like not brushing off a compliment and simply accept it as being safe to say “thank you” without fear of seeming conceited, full of oneself and any of the old messages that seem to be a societal norm. Humbleness and humility are noble ways of being. But false humbleness perpetuates the message to “not accept”. A willingness to accept compliments, praise, even constructive criticism and changes in your world are all representative of your ability to accept prosperity. To do so, grants others permission to do the same. And there in lies the true gift of prosperity. You receive, give others permission to do the same, and open to receive more. It’s sort of like the spiritual version of “success breeds success”. Or “what goes around comes around”.

Maybe it comes with maturity. Not necessary in years but in personal growth. The ability to grasp that there’s a letting go of the “I”, the “me” in receiving. While it would seem like receiving is about ourselves, it is doing so from the place of it not being about you that is a gift to others and therefore not about ourselves at all.

Here’s a fun game and a useful tool for yourself. Create a SelfieMantra. As you know, selfies have become wildly popular. But instead of showing the world what you look like, tell us WHO you are and what you BELIEVE. Photoshop your message over a photo of yourself, hold up a sign, or take a selfie that tells up something about yourself. Post it on facebook and use the hashtag #selfiemantra. I’ll be collecting them and posting them on my Pinterest board. My own is there right now- check it out.

Your #selfiemantra can serve you as a daily reminder of your worth and your willingness to receive all that is WONDERFUL about yourself. Namaste. (If you don’t know, Namsate means I honor the light in you).

A good friend of mine is going to climb Kilimanjaro in a few weeks. What an outstanding accomplishment that will be. This is a guy who always takes on huge physical challenges–marathons, skydiving, sports car racing. I’ve always admired him for these things.

I have to admit when he told me about his climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro I was really humbled. It’s so out of my realm of thinking to even consider doing something like that. I began to judge my own accomplishments in life as small in comparison.

Then it occurred to me. Don’t we all have our own Kilimanjaros? Our very own big hill to climb? I have people close to me that have beat addictions. Many friends who have left very long term relationships to take life on on their own. Neighbors who have lost loved ones way too soon and raised children as single parents. And many men and woman, who like me, took a very long journey to being true to themselves and came out later in life. We all have our Kilimanjaros.

It’s important to remember to be a cheering squad for one another. Support each other. Encourage the journey. Remind each other to simply put one foot in front of the other along the way. Keep your eye on the summit.

You may have to meander around a few boulders but just keep going. The important thing is that you’re taking action towards what you want. You’re challenging your beliefs about what you’re capable of. If I chose to climb Kilimanjaro I would first have to start with overcoming my limiting belief that I can’t do something like that. Once I put that old belief aside and took on a more empowering belief of “yes I can”, then the next thing to do would be to get into action. This is how you create the results you want.

We are probably the quickest to judge the magnitude of our own biggest challenges. It’s very humane to remain humble and see other’s accomplishments as greater than our own. But not at the sacrifice of honoring our own, very big hills to climb. We all have our own Kilimnajaros.

I really do respect my friend for climbing Kilimanjaro. It’s impressive. I’ll be cheering him on in spirit March 6-18. And I honor you and your journey. Comment below and tell me about your own personal Kilimanjaro. What have been your biggest challenges that you’ve summited? Or that you’d like to? Physical challenges, emotional challenges, personal growth challenges….they’re all valuable.

I hope you’ll take the time to honor the person you are who takes on the challenges in your life, big and small, chosen or imposed.

If you enjoy receiving inspiring messages, check out my Pinterest page. There’s an entire board devoted to Inspiring Quotes.

 

Aside from being an incredible leader and voice for civil rights, Martin Luther King may be the best example of how to inspire followers that we have ever known. We are all in a position to have to inspire followers whether you’re a parent, teacher, politician or small business owner. The bottom line is we are all trying our best to move people. To inspire action. To get people to follow.

I believe entrepreneurs and small business owners have a special role in this regard and have a great deal to learn from MLK. Being in business today is first and foremost about being found and creating followers. They’re called ‘followers’ on social networks for a reason. I used MLK as an example at my platform presentation last week at ImagingUSA. Funny, it didn’t occur to me how soon it would be to the day we honor him. But I can’t help but think about what I said last week. I posed the following question, “How did Martin Luther King get 250,000 to show up to hear him give a speech in Washington, DC before facebook and twitter were even invented to spread the word”?

Most of the people in Washington, DC that day would never see him or barely be close enough to even hear him. Why did they show up? The reason a quarter of a million people showed up is because they wanted to demonstrate that they believed what he believed. He shared his dreams. “I have a dream”, was the speech. And crowds of people showed up to proclaim that they shared that dream. A dream that people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Where freedom would ring and we’d all be free at last. Decades later, Martin Luther King still has hundreds of thousands of followers who still believe what he believed. I am just one of them.

What I take most from his life is the ability to inspire others to follow. I believe it is what we are called to do as creative entrepreneurs and socially conscious small business owners. We must live and work in integrity and be examples of trust and honesty. It is our duty to build relationships in the neighborhoods we serve. It is our calling to give back to the world and communities we derive our livelihood from. We must share our dreams and values with those we intend on serving and if they believe what we believe, if they value what we value, the people we are meant to serve will show up. Just like they did for Martin Luther King. Then in business, there’s no more us and them, business and client. There’s just “we”. We work together with a common objective, create amazing value and I believe we can change the world one business transaction at a time. Building relationships. Establishing trust. Instilling honesty. Creating beauty.

It may be a big dream, but I am sharing it today, on this day of dreamers. That we, as small business owners, as servant entrepreneurs, change the world one transaction and one client at a time. If you believe what I believe, will you join me?

It’s not often, well, ever actually, that I comment on the actions of a mega-pop star. But the release of Beyonce’s latest album is marketing genius. The element of surprise keeping the production completely under wraps. And then showing up at Walmart in Brooklyn at the height of holiday shopping and announcing on the microphone that she was paying for everyone’s first $50 purchase. Releasing it directly through iTunes. Brilliant.

But the most stunning thing to me is to see an artist embrace the changing form of her art and working it, baby. Let’s face it. The music industry has been tanked. The popularity of downloaded and streamed music makes it almost impossible to make money on record sales. Personally I haven’t spent a dime on a music purchase in more years than I can remember. You? But putting out an “album” with 17 videos and 14 songs? Freaking genius. THAT gets my attention. Instead of complaining about the way it “used to be”, Beyonce has fully embraced this multi-media, short attention span, marketing noisy world we live in and bust it wide open and got everyone’s attention. To say nothing of being smart enough to use her best “assets” in the videos.

What can small businesses and marketers learn from this? First and foremost, you can’t survive if you spend any time complaining about how it “used to be”. Yeah, it used to be easier to get clients. It used to be easier to make a buck. It was nice when we didn’t have to worry about people infringing on copyrights. Blah, blah, blah. There are always incredible opportunities to be innovative and use what’s current and available right now.

Secondly, was the element of surprise and use of social media. Including the news which is nothing more than Facebook live. Seems to me her team spent next to nothing on marketing (except for the few thousands dollars on Walmart gift cards). What’s always striking to me is how many small businesses don’t realize how LITTLE you can spend on marketing today. In my business, I spend less than 1% annual gross on marketing. Most of what works today–social media, relationship building, offering free content– cost nearly nothing.

Observe what’s going on around you. Take notice of how other companies and artists are marketing themselves. They have more money to spend and ability to take risks. Learn from them. Well played, Beyonce!

Lately we have seen a few photographers getting blasted for plagiarism. There are some things not being said that I would like to share because quite frankly, I don’t necessarily see it as plagiarism. Hey, as a photographer I hate the thought of my images being stolen as much as anyone else. But as a coach encouraging personal growth in individuals and changes in our world, I struggle to agree with some of these accusations. Let’s make an important distinction first. We live in an information age. It is pretty new issue to deal with the “stealing of content” to this degree. One comment on a blog recently called the actions of a teacher accused of stealing content like, “stealing someone’s photo and re-matting it”. That’s not what it’s like at all. A photograph is a tangible, easily recognizable item. Stealing a photograph is black and white. The prove is there or it’s not. “Stealing” content is full of shades of gray. Is it verbatim or the essence of what was said? Haven’t you ever heard someone say out loud EXACTLY what you were thinking or believe? I know I have– many times. Finding people who believe what you believe is an exciting thing! No thought is ever original. Whatever stroke of brilliance you think you might be having, there are thousands of people who have had that thought or are thinking the same thing. There’s a business lesson here too. That’s the whole point of a successful business. To call forward the people who believe what you do and are excited to share what you believe and share it together. That’s why 250,000 people showed up to hear Martin Luther King give a speech. He shared what he believed and people showed up in masses to say, “I believe that too”. That’s how you have a successful business.

Humans have been story-telling and passing on content since the beginning of time. It’s critical to establishing history and it is CRITICAL  to cultures moving forward. If you are inspired by someone’s words or beliefs and share it, is it plagiarism? If that’s the case, what becomes of the role of teacher and student?

A few months ago, I reached out to my coach who I have worked extensively with for the past few years. We have created amazing growth in my life during this time. I reached out to him to express my concern that I have learned so much from him and have developed so much content myself in a relatively short period of time, that I am no longer clear which thoughts are his and which are mine. I’m not even sure what words are my own. Being the gracious man he is, he thanked me for the compliment. As he saw it, he had done his work as a teacher so well that I, as his student, had internalized all that he offered to such a degree I could no longer distinguish which were my original thoughts. He went on to say that should I use any of the written content that he has created without his permission that would be a problem. But the sharing of what I learned from him to pass on to others was a beautiful thing. He called it The Positive Escalator. He teaches me, I learn, I pass it on to others, they learn, they pass it on….etc. A positive escalator where we are all advancing and raising the collective consciousness of the world we live in.

I hate to think that we live in a time where we can’t allow the inspiration that we receive from others as a teaching tool. That we stop telling stories and passing on information because we might be accused of plagiarism. This is how we grow. This is how we add to the collective consciousness of the world. This is the ride of the positive escalator.

I understand it’s a fine line. And we live in a different time when content has value and people are paid for what they think more than what they do. These are issues we will have to work out as a society. I thank some of those that are taking the heat on this issue right now. Let’s sort these things out together in the spirit of understanding instead of setting up witch hunts and destroying careers and lives. What could be lost is far greater than the satisfaction of “calling someone out”.

The irony of self worth is that it has nothing to do with self. In preparation for an interview recently I was sent a series of questions. One was how I define self worth. That got me thinking and what I realized is that our self worth can be diminished by focusing on ourselves. When we are focused on ourselves we are more likely to wonder if we’re “good enough”, did a good enough job, are worth what we charge, etc. In our desire to be “good enough”, putting the spotlight on ourselves actually causes us to doubt our worth.

I know at speaking engagements, I have to stay completely focused on the audience and not myself to control the nerves. If I worry about whether I’ll be good enough, prepared enough, trip over my words (or feet), the nervousness increases. Honestly, as someone who public speaking does not come naturally to, I have to really work hard to get the attention off myself and MY nervousness and focus entirely on the audience. When I am fully committed to THEM and serving the audience I could trip and fall off the stage and as long as I get up and give valuable content, I don’t care what happens.

So I suspect our best opportunity to increase our self worth is getting the spotlight off ourselves and on those we can serve. A little ironic. We don’t have to look good, be perfect or amaze. We simply have to deliver.

One of my favorite things to witness as a coach is watching people prove their theories. We all have them. At least at some point in our lives. Our ‘theories’ are there until we’re done with them. And we work really hard to prove that our theories are correct.

Today I had the pleasure of watching a theory arise for a client that was perfectly accurate. I’ll bet there are many people that have this theory. For this client, I called it “The Imperfect Loop”. It works like this. Somewhere down the line, he decided he would never be “perfect” enough. Probably parental issues but not really important at this point. I mean it’s important, but coaching doesn’t care so much about WHY something is the way it is. Therapy looks for the “why”. Coaching works with what is and supports you to get to where you want to go. That’s what I love about coaching. Anyway…..I digress.

So he decided at some point in his life, perhaps sub-consciously, that he was never going to be perfect enough. Oddly never, this shows up as someone who is a perfectionist. Holding themselves to a very high standard. In order to prove that he’s not perfect, he attempts to tackle ten times more than any human could handle. In his own words, everything gets about a third of his attention. This way he can fail at being perfect so that he can prove to himself that he’s not perfect. See how this works? The imperfect loop.

We all have or have had theories. People that believe that “no one will ever be there for me”, the abandonment theory, do a great job at pushing people in relationships to the point that they walk away. “See, no one will ever be there for me”, they say. My theory was that no one will ever treat me as well as I treat them. So I chose relationships that have huge inequities. I think I’m done trying to prove this theory. It’s at least a work in process.

See if you can identify the theory you’re trying to prove. It’s not always easy to see in ourselves. Being aware of it is the first step in recognizing how often we try to prove it. Not something to “hate” about ourselves. I don’t recommend self-hate. Just something to work with so that you can live a happy life no longer trying to prove a theory that was probably never true to begin with.

The following is an excerpt from my latest eGuide, “In Their Shoes- Understanding High End Clients and How to Serve Them”. This eGuide accompanies a teleclass where I’ll be interviewed live by Nancy Michaels, America’s most sought after fortune 500 consultant, on Tuesday Nov 12th at 1pm EST. It should be a great conversation about this important topic. If you’d like to join us, click here to claim your spot. The call is free.

The important thing to me about this topic is that it is about SERVING the high end market. In order to properly serve, you must first understand. So my eGuide is about understanding, compassion and getting to know yourself first. And then deciding whether you and your business are the right fit for this market segment. It is NOT a “how-to”, “road to riches” kind of thing at all.

Anyway, enjoy this excerpt and please join us on the call Tuesday.

Their Expectations 

Much of what has been discussed in this eGuide comes down to being the right fit. Alignment you can say. Because the high-end market is such a particular niche and not the masses, I don’t think there’s any place where being the right fit is more important. Offering products and services to this unique market should not be seen as a “good business plan” just because it seems like the roads are paved with gold.

If you are fighting against any one of the characteristics described in this eGuide, you will be fighting an uphill battle, if not setting yourself up for failure. Someone I know who had two successful men’s clothing stores wanted to open a store in an affluent town in Connecticut. I warned him that there was already a very successful men’s store in that town whose clientele were extremely loyal. What could he possibly do to draw people away? He couldn’t. The original store did everything right and there was nothing he could ever do to break the loyalty their clientele felt. His store closed in a short period of time.

While it is imperative that you get to understand the psychology, habits and way of being of the high-end market, it is equally important that you get to know yourself. Who do YOU need to be to satisfy the needs of this clientele and is it genuine for you? One of the greatest tools I am aware of to accomplish this is what is called Perfect Lists. It’s a combination of two lists. The first is a long, detailed list of all the characteristics of your “Perfect Client”. The second list, equally if not more important, is the “Expectations of the Perfect Client.” IF the perfect client walked into your business, exactly who do YOU need to be to deserve and serve them?

Put yourself in their shoes, and imagine what their expectations of you might be. Can you deliver? For example, let’s say you’re in a business that is by appointment only and one of the characteristics of your perfect client is that they show up for their appointments on time. In order for you to deserve such a responsible client you can be assured that one of their expectations of you is that you are also prompt, prepared and able to deliver on time. Or perhaps your ideal client refers your business to their friends. They are going to expect that you are completely trustworthy, reliable and transparent in all your business dealings.

This is not to say that you make this list of their expectations and then you can magically become all these things. You want to take a fair look at yourself and inquire as to whether that is who you innately are or want to be. If you find being timely and prompt impossible or confining for you, then this market might not be for you. If you understand they are going to want to do business with someone who is meticulous, detailed and buttoned-down and you prefer to be casual and loose, then this might not be for you.

And that’s perfectly alright. Businesses are far more successful when they are aligned with the right clientele than when they are trying to force a mismatch. In fact, when you have right alignment of values and characteristics, it’s surprising how little work it is to be in business. Sales never feel like sales again but rather acts of service. Getting a good understanding of who you are, your clients’ expectations, and whether the high-end market is the right fit for you is the journey of not only having a successful business but also one that you love.