What I enjoyed about Noreena’s discussion was how intellectually stimulating it was and since I consider myself an expert, I was certainly drawn to the topic.

In addition, the application of her concepts for the entrepreneur are valid and valuable.

After viewing, consider her point about using our own independent decision-making capabilities vs. being led around by experts. That creation and destruction of ideas can actually make us smarter!

A recent conversation with a client revealed that she had received less than actionable advice from a well known expert coach. And because of the “expertise” she didn’t consider other options to achieve her goal.

So Noreena’s advice, as well as the case studies she weaves throughout her talk, remind us that while we should appreciate experts, we must also be courageous (my view) in accepting or not, that expertise!

How to use experts and when to not by Noreena Hertz – Ted

Trend or Fad?

Herman Trend Alert: Social Media and Social Change March 2, 2011

While we realize that the Internet is merely a tool, it has played an unmistakable and important role in recent political events. Technology’s impact on political unrest is not new. In 1979 the revolution in Iran used smuggled cassette tapes of inspirational speeches from opposition leaders to provoke turmoil. In 1989 during the fall of the former-Soviet bloc countries, the FAX machine played a critical role in distributing information among dissidents. Twitter and Facebook are simply the newest tools, though significantly more powerful than others before. They supported the Egyptian opposition, after the recent regime change in Tunisia.

According to Guarav Mishra Professor of Social Media at Georgetown University, there are other factors at play here as well. “The societal context and the sequence of how events unfold, the personality of the protagonists and the relationships between them, the stickiness of the message and the timing of its delivery” are all factors that have an effect on the situation.

In fact, the Internet has affected many aspects of our lives: how we shop, how we relate with each other, how we promote goods and services, how we recruit, and especially the need for corporate transparency (addressed in a recent Herman Trend Alert— http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_1-12-2011.html).

In the recent “Social Media Comes of Age” The Vocus 2011 Planning Survey, organizations overwhelmingly gave themselves high marks for social media maturity, with 67 percent saying they are “participating, sharing and contributing to social conversations”.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point”, “the point is whether the social web helped create the social context over the long-term that seeded the meme (a cultural item, transmitted by repetition) of the revolution or tipped it into a movement”.

We believe that the Social Web did and that the Internet and particularly social media will continue to affect life as we have known it. Not only may any despot expect regime change revolutions, but social media will continue to affect an increasing number of aspects of our lives. What we have seen in recent events in the Middle East is only the beginning. Get ready; it’s going to be a wild ride!
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The "secret sauce"!

So you focus on your strengths that align with what you want your business to do, what’s the final step to be a strategic successful entrepreneur and able to create a 6-figure business?

Finally and this is a big one for me and a lot of “teachers” whether they be coaches or consultants or managers or leaders. That is to take action. Some call it implementation, execution, taking a next step.

We know that there are a lot of reasons why business owners do not take action to move their businesses forward. It could be this lack of knowledge around what your strengths are, what your business is intended for, how to run a business or marketing a business. Or it could just be one of those fear things – you know fear of failure or fear of success.

Regardless what it is, you have to deal with this and do it fast. One of the challenges I noticed about people who come out of corporate or any kind of regimented environment is the need for permission or “group think” in order to move forward. When you are an entrepreneur, you get to make all of the decisions and that can be scary. But when you realize that every business is fraught with mistakes and failures and it’s what you do with that information that matters more, that you just give yourself the permission you want and you move forward and take action.

There is a multimillionaire network marketer who is also a dear friend of mine and she taught me one of the best lessons I could have ever learned about mastering your psychology for running a business. When she explained how she went from high 6-figures to a million dollar business, she said it happened when she took 100% responsibility for what happened in her business. This changed my whole perspective and I’d like it to influence yours as well.

Here’s what that looks like. You cannot blame your assistant, your affiliates, your promotion partners, your coach, your hosting company, you graphics person or anyone else for your results. You and only you are responsible for the results you achieve. That gives you enormous power and that’s the perspective as a business owner you want to have. This does not mean you do it all yourself, you can’t. But it does mean that like Oprah said a long time ago, she and only she signs the checks. So you and only you can create the business success or failure that you want.

So taking action is key to taking responsibility, because nothing moves or changes until you do!

So focusing on my strengths is the first key, what the next one you need to be strategic and successful?

I want you to ask yourself, “What is it that I want my business to do?”

Very few of us think about the “what” of our businesses. What do you want your business to do? We can find the “how to”  so easily, right?

“How to” grow your subscriber list.

“How to” host a teleseminar or webinar

“How to” get friends, followers, fans and connections in X number of days

“How to” is all over the place and I’m not knocking it! It’s how I’ve learned a lot of the tactics I both use and teach my clients.

But starting with the “What” leads you to the right “how-to” so that you don’t waste your time and money.

So “what” is key. Let me use my business, Radiance Marketing as an example. Before I shifted my focus to helping service professionals Think big…Play bigger in their lives and businesses by helping them to go from struggling to successful and building profitable business. I was a bit all over the place.

I initially launched this business to help people like me who were in transition from their corporate gigs to business owners. And while I enjoyed helping the one or two who came to me for that help, I found myself attracting more full time consultants, coaches and small business owners who wanted to learn what I knew about building and marketing a 6 figure business.

And while I can help you do that, I want you to create a profitable business whether you work with me or not, by thinking bigger about what’s possible for you and your business. Meaning, what is your business about and how does it leverage your strengths and your passion? It is starting from there that everything else flows more naturally. It is starting from there that you begin to build a life while running your business.

No doubt about it!

So how do we become the strategic successful entrepreneur who thinks big…plays bigger? What are the 3 keys nearly every entrepreneur underestimates?

You begin by focusing on fundamentally growing your business. Not with tactics but with a strategy.  It sounds simplistic, I know. But just the mere awareness of these 3 keys will prompt you to make an energetic change and from there, all else flows.

The first key is to know what it is you’re good at. You start by asking:

What is it that I am good at? What’s my strength?

We often struggle with this question because it’s not what we focus on. We’re often taught to work on our weaknesses, not our strengths. As a result if you ask someone what their weaknesses are, they are quick to give you an answer and will follow each with how they are working to improve them. If you ask, what’s your strength? You’ll likely see them stop, stall, breathe deeply and roll their eyes toward the ceiling  as if the answer is written there.

I can tell you from those almost 30 years in corporate that we were always focused on people’s weaknesses and how to improve them. Not the strengths that we should have been nurturing and leveraging to grow the business. But there are so many fundamental reasons why they keep this practice alive…we don’t have time to cover. Suffice it to say. Follow the money!

So you can find out what your strengths are through assessments, both online and in books. You can ask your trusted colleagues or clients what they find to be a strength of yours.

Remember I had a clue what my strength was at the age of 7…and as I look back over my life, I can see where I’ve had the greatest success is when I was teaching something to someone to help them be the best they could be.

The reason that I’m spending time on this, and highly recommend that you do the same, is because your strength will support your passion and it’s absolutely what you leverage in your business to be successful.

If you are not playing to your strength not only will it be a struggle it will cost you money. Don’t believe me? Let’s take the case of a well known, well loved athlete that the world admired for years.

Everyone recall Michael Jordan? Famous, highly skilled, extraordinarily talented basketball player. An incredible athlete. He did things people wondered were even possible. And it made him a multi, multi millionaire!

You would agree that basketball was both his strength and his passion, right?

Fulfilling the dream, no matter what!

For the sports fans and the Jordan fans, you know where I’m going…

So focus on your strengths because when the Trumps of the world lose it all, they know how to focus on their strengths to get it back and then some. And so will you.

After 8 years of Catholic Grade School discipline, along with parents who valued education before play, I’ve learned to “eat the veggies before the dessert” and “to focus to get the reward”.

It played well in corporate America, as you can imagine. And as it turns out, as an entrepreneur “discipline” is priceless.

It’s all too easy, given our freedom and creativity, to be distracted and unfocused.

And sometimes it really is our mind’s way of saying…take a break! But that same mind will find other fun stuff to keep us engaged so that we don’t have to get back to the task at hand.

That’s when we have to call on that inner core of discipline that energizes and inspires us, everyday, to do what we do…to do what we love.

This is ONE key to going from “Struggling to Successful Entrepreneur.”

And so when I read this reflection on discipline by Philip Humbert, I was inspired to share it with you. Philip has led a conference called the World Class Life in the past, to rave reviews, so he knows a bit about what it takes to have and enjoy a life that gives back, what you give. That includes the discipline to persist in the face of distraction and dessert!

Create Your Own World Class Life – Philip Humbert (an excerpt)

Persistent Self-Discipline. A World Class Life asks a great deal of us. It demands that we get up and get started.
It demands that you do the things most people avoid, that you pay attention, that you show up, that you go the “extra
mile.” A World Class Life has lots of time for play, but when work or diligence are called for, winners do the right things,
in the right way, in a timely manner. Practice self-discipline.
There is no other way.

www.philiphumbert.com or email Coach@philiphumbert.com

Are you an "opportunity seeker"?

Before I tell you how to go from overwhelmed and struggling to successful as an entrepreneur so that you can Think Big…Play Bigger™ in your life and business. We have to talk about something that was a big ah-ha for me and a lot of my clients. And I really try to drive that home with each and every entrepreneur and small business owner I work with, and I want to share it with you.

As business owners we are conditioned to look at where we are today. How many clients we have, how much money we’re making, how many friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, connections on LinkedIn, subscribers on our list, right? Then we look at where we want to be in terms of those same elements…mostly we focus in on the money – let’s not kid ourselves.

And what do we discover? The gap. So we start to look for ways to close the gap. And what we typically do is look for the “magic” bullet to close the gap. Because we don’t really want to spend that much time on it. We figure lots of people have figured this thing out and all I have to do is buy that program that tells me how to get 500 Friends, Followers or Connections a week or how to move myself to #1 on the Google Hit Parade in 12 keystrokes, etc.

And there are tons of Internet marketers who will oblige you. In fact, they have a name for  you…you’re called “Opportunity Seekers”. You’re looking for the next opportunity to buy the tool or tactic that will close that gap – fast. They are looking, actively, for you. They want those who believe in the “magic bullet” and build massive businesses in support of them.

So I want to recondition you from being the “opportunity seeker” to a strategic thinker. Strategic thinkers are immune to the sales tactics because they are building strong and profitable business, not seekers of the next $7 PDF that will sit on your desk to be read.

By the way, I can share all of this with you because I’ve been there. I’ve purchased the $7 eBook all the way to the several hundred dollar kit that helps me to write a book. And part of what turned the tide for me was looking at it all stacked up in my garage and collecting dust!

We do this, quite simply because we don’t take the time to think about our businesses strategically. Thinking strategically is not sexy, it’s not quick, it’s not something we can sit in front of the computer and do!  And because we’ve become this computer based online marketing focused, that’s where we think we should be during those business focused hours.

I recall a couple of my coaches advising me that I needed “think” time. And I would argue that there were things I really needed to do! Like get my newsletter done, write an article, be seen on social media, prepare my presentation, etc.

But what I’ve found is when you take the time to think about what you want, what you want your business to be and how you can make that happen, it 1: stops you from doing stuff that just doesn’t matter and 2: gives you renewed energy to do the stuff that does.

Not enough hours in the day!

Struggling entrepreneurs who want to play small is why I’ve created the Think Big…Play Bigger™ Business Growth Model. It is a way of moving forward in your business from where you are to where you want to be. You can learn more about the model on my website.

How you end the struggle, stop playing small and create a 6-figure business is to move from a struggling entrepreneur to a successful entrepreneur and Think Big…Play Bigger™ in your life and business.

Let’s look at the characteristics of a struggling entrepreneur.

Struggling entrepreneurs are what Rich Schefren, well-known Internet marketing business coach, calls “opportunity seekers.” Let me describe the characteristics and see if this is where you live:

Frustrated – can’t seem to figure out how to make inroads with all of the activities you play in like social media, article marketing, newsletters, websites, forums, etc.

Overwhelmed – which blogs to read, which gurus to follow, which social network is the place to be seen and heard

Burning out – how many hours can you spend reading newsletters, listening to webinars, teleseminars, conference calls

In addition, you may be taking different tactics, a little bit of strategy and a whole lot of muscle to put together what you think is a business and wondering how or when it’s going to get easier.

How many of you can relate?

I can tell you that I have been here and played here for quite a while! I’d have a matrix of activities to do that I just expected to take me out of my frustration, overwhelm and burn out. I figured if I lined up my day just the right way, move all of my coaching calls to one day, do business development just one day, look at my metrics one day, that I’d have this thing cooking w/gas as we say!

What was I experiencing? Probably what you do. Intermittent success. Unsure of whether everything I was doing was making a difference. But afraid to stop because I didn’t know which was the blue wire and which was the red.

Not a great place to be.

However, there’s actually some good news, if this is a place you’re in. So let’s talk about that before we get into how to turn this around. This can actually create great success for you, if you’re in this place. Why?

Because to be here for any length of time speaks to your passion around what it is you do. If you were not passionate, you would have abandoned it for something different or let’s just say it, a job.

It also gives you that point of pain where you know you want something different. And as you know nothing can change until…you’re ready.

Struggling entrepreneurs

If you’re an entrepreneur, the title of this post didn’t surprise you and likely intrigued you. Good. My intent for this series, “Struggling to Successful Entrepreneur” is to help you to go from overwhelmed, frustrated and painfully close to burned out. And to share 3 keys nearly every entrepreneur underestimates when growing and marketing their business.

When I talk with entrepreneurs about their business and try to understand what’s keeping them from achieving what they want, it becomes crystal clear that they are playing “small” in their lives and businesses.

Not just because of fear, but also because they didn’t recognize that what they were feeling, they were getting. OK, this is going to be a bit woo woo, but it will all make sense.

If you are in fear and play small in your business, you will attract clients who will play small with you. That means they will look for free, they will expect a lower fee for more value, etc. That’s because they will meet you where you are.

So imagine, I’m connecting with prospects who are in this place, and I with my 28 years of high level corporate experience, deep coaching skills and 5 years of online business experience with both failures and successes, as well as being steeped in marketing – both as a certified marketing coach and member of a high level mastermind with a millionaire coach.

When I present them with an opportunity to work with me, they jump at the chance, knowing it would be an incredible boost to their business. I share the kinds of strategies and tactics that grew my own business and that they could use in their own business. Sounds, all good!

However, they were unwilling to invest in themselves, financially, to achieve that boost. But this also translates to investing the time and effort as well…

Some entrepreneurs and business owners would not understand this. But I respect this.

It’s where they are and until they have a deep desire, (either through “enough is enough” or “change or be changed”), to have something different, there they will be…struggling.

What breaks my hear about this is that they truly want something different and just don’t know what to do about it! (and it could involve zero dollars!)

Cour-age – [kur-ij]1. noun - the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

As business owners, this is something we demonstrate daily, right? I wish I could say that I see this enough to agree.

Yet, I “get” where this is coming from.

In my work with entrepreneurs, in particular those who are in transition or have made the transition from corporate to their own businesses, I have discovered that the courage to stand strong in their business and think bigger is sorely missing.

Strong words, I know. So let me make it plain.

It’s not about going out every day to slay the dragons of the fearful clients, the unyielding and poor economic indicators or this blasted weather pattern we seem to be in. No it’s an internal game. It’s, shall I say it — your mindset.

For those familiar with the story or movie, “The Wizard of Oz” you’ll recall that the Cowardly Lion discovered his courage when he was “up against it.”  He discovered it was the way he was thinking that prevented him from feeling his “courage.” It’s no different when you’re in business.

Listen, everyone has fear, everyone has a less than courageous moment, day or week. But you know yourself, when you’re “up against it”, you rise to the occasion.

Think back to your corporate days… When there was a deadline or a month end/ quarter end target, all the stops were pulled out. It was “all hands on deck”, late nights, lots of dedication and a burning desire to win. So you know what that’s about. Just because it’s now your business, that spirit and determination is just as important…if not crucial.

Connecting with your courage will give you access to think bigger about your business and what you intend to do for your clients. How “attractive” is that? Our clients want to know that we’re there and ready to help them be courageous in the face of their challenges.

So how do you begin to have the courage to think bigger about who you are and what your business can do, for your clients?

Let’s start with something you just need to know:

- you’re NOT the only one

- it’s NOT that unusual

- you may JUST need to breathe

And what happens then? You get the next idea, inspiration, step…and the courage to move forward.

I am taking up the commitment and focus to help you develop the courage to think bigger about your business, particularly if you are a corporate escapee who wants to be a thriving entrepreneur!

More to come…