Ready To Be Your Own Boss? Develop These Three Habits First.

Posted on March 2, 2015 by MarleneMB

“You’re not the boss of me!” My little 5-year-old niece said to her much older brother one day. He was telling her to stop running in the house. I had to hide my smile as I instructed her to listen to her brother, because he didn’t want her to get hurt.

Reflecting on her declaration of independence, I thought about the times I wanted to scream the same thing to some of my bosses. How I yearned to venture out on my own. Once I finally did, I realized it wasn’t so easy.

Gone were some of the predictabilities of having someone to tell you what to do. Gone was someone holding you accountable for getting your tasks done. Gone were the scheduled meetings that helped you to keep things on track.

Three of the big challenges for me were: self-discipline, accountability and time management.

Harry S. Truman once stated: “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.”

1) Self-Discipline: I had to summon my willpower to do the things that makes a business successful. Even the ones that I didn’t enjoy. Sometimes I had to push myself to act, instead of overthinking a project. I created my business plan. I took the time to research the marketplace to find my target audience.

Cold calling is not fun, but I make it fun to get to my prospects. I make time to read and learn more about my audience. Continuous learning also helps to improve my skills. This ensures that the products and services I offer is up-to-date and relevant.

Before you head out on your own, think about some of the bad habits you have. What could cause you to stumble if you do not control yourself? Make a note of it. Commit to practice self-discipling. The more you practice self-discipline in a certain area of your life, the easier it is to accomplish that task.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17

2) Accountability: It is difficult to keep oneself accountable. Therefore, I turn to others to keep me accountable. I have a few great friends that I can share what goals I have to meet. They hold me accountable for achieving those goals. My mother notorious for keeping me accountable. If I tell her that I’m writing a proposal for a client, during our next phone conversation she would ask if I’ve finished it. She does so, because she cares about my success.

Find your accountability partner. Someone that genuinely cares about your success. Share your goals with him or her. You will be grateful to know that amazing folks are in your corner helping to make you better.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar

3) Time Management: Zig Ziglar’s quote is so true. We all have twenty-four hour days. Yet, we may think there is just not enough time in a day. I used to believe that strongly. Until I took Dr. Stephen Covey’s course “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” It was one of the best courses I participated in. I learned to management what I do within the 24 hours I am given. I also learned to set priorities and say no to things that do not impact my productivity or positivity level.

As your own boss, you will need to prioritize your activities. By planning your activities throughout the day; you are able to adjust your schedule should an emergency come along. Once you deal with that emergency you can quickly return to your schedule. It is eye-opening to see how many hours one can waste when we don’t plan or budget our time wisely.

As I mentioned, being your own boss won’t always be easy. Yet, if you practice self-discipline, hold yourself accountable and utilize your time properly, it won’t be as difficult. Perhaps you will be able to declare your own independence to your boss, like my 5-year-old niece did to her older brother.

Come learn about writing your first book and get a copy of my book: Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters, Saturday, March 14, 2015 3-5 p.m. at the Dania Beach Paul Demaio Library, 1 Park Ave., East Dania Beach, FL 33004.

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What Are You Waiting For? Start Your Business Today!

Posted on February 18, 2015 by MarleneMB

“Start-up success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.” ~ Eric Ries

Do you DREAM of starting you own business? Many people have the desire but don’t know where to start! They would say to themselves: “Someday I am going to own my business.” “One day, I’m going to quit my job and start my own company.” BUT one day “NEVER” comes!

Why don’t people get started? What holds the back? Why the mental paralysis?

1) Fear of Failure

2) Fear of leaving the familiar, i.e. working for someone else

3) Fear of the level of effort it takes to start and run ones own company

I get it. I was there. FINALLY….I realized that “someday” “one day” is NOW! We can’t turn back the hands of time, we cannot “FAST FORWARD” the future. What is certain is TODAY!

We know that tomorrow is not guaranteed and we don’t want to be that “could of”, “would of”, “should of” type of person—–right?

My Dad told me that he regretted not becoming an artist a week before he died, this broke my heart. It was an awakening moment for me. There is no gift like living life with passion and doing the things you love to do. One of the things I love doing is helping people achieve their purpose and their goals. A week after we said good-bye to my Dad, I started my journey of owning a business.

“You have to do what you dream of doing even while you are afraid.” ~ Arianna Huffington

If you feel stuck, unfulfilled, scared or in a place where you are not moving towards your dream…”Starting Your Own Business….. WE CAN HELP!

Join us for this informative Webinar on what it takes to make “YOUR” dream of self-employment a “REALITY”!

What You Will Learn…

Characteristics of a successful Entrepreneur
Defining The Vision
The 5 Steps To Starting Your Own Business
Transformation: from Dream to “Reality”!
The Business Plan!

Live your Dream! Live it Now!

RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!

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Before You Get Off the Hamster Wheel to Become An Entrepreneur: Get Over Your Fear of Failure

Posted on December 29, 2014 by MarleneMB

Pet Hamster Holding A Blank Sign — Image from launchalegacy.com.

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“How do you get off the hamster wheel?” This was a question someone posed to me this weekend. He stopped by my table at one of my book signing events. He asked me about the content of my book Living a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters. I told him that I wrote the book to encourage others to find a meaningful purpose to life; then, surround themselves with mentors and coaches to help them live that life.

We were discussing the fact that so many people stay in jobs that they disliked. This leaves them feeling unfulfilled in these positions. He said he admires people, similar to his friend, that are pursuing their passions. He explained that his friend had a lucrative practice as an attorney. His friend left the law business to become an entrepreneur in an area that involves his passion. His friend’s saved money from his law practice. Therefore, he does not worry about earning a large income in this new endeavor.

This gentleman told me that he personally trades in options. He also owns a rental property as added income. He felt that he could not pursue what he would like to do (he never did say exactly what that was). He needed the security of having enough money in the bank to sustain his lifestyle. I reminded him what we do in life is a choice. Whatever we choose to do, or not do, comes with consequences. We have to decide if we can live with those consequences.

My good friend Dr. Larry Benovitz, a psychiatrist and author of There is No ReDo: Strategies for a Lifetime, once said: “Many people are living behind prison bars they created themselves.” I thought about this quote as I spoke with my visitor. It didn’t seem that he was afraid of taking certain risks. He was trading in options…you can make a lot of money one day and lose it the next. Yet, I did sense a fear of failure or of the unknown from him in our conversation.

Early that day, I had listened to one of Tony Robbins’ sessions on Personal Power. Tony encourages the listeners to embrace failure. We should not be afraid of failing. As we push towards achieving our goals, we may experience failures. We should learn from them and get back in the game. If we don’t push pass fear of failure, we may never experience the joys of the manifestations of our dreams into realty.

Brigette Hyacinth, Director at MBA Caribbean Organization, wrote a great LinkedIn article, Leadership Lesson: The Wisdom of Failure, that gives valuable insight on how to approach failure in our lives. I recommend that you invest the time to read the article by clicking on the title.

Back to the questions: “How do you get off the hamster wheel?” You decide to do so after you examine:

What it is you want – Vision – The End Result
Why you want it – Purpose – If you don’t have a strong why, you won’t survive the failures
How do you get there – Mission – Build a Plan with goals that have timelines and milestones
What is the impact if you do or don’t pursue this Vision

A week before he died, my dad told me he regretted not living his dream of being an artist. He reminded me that we cannot take material things and money with us. Only our life’s experiences and our relationships with people. I don’t want this regret to happen to me. I want live my life doing what I understand to be my purpose. Don’t you?

Yes, we have to be realistic that we have to take care of our basic human needs.But how much are we willing to sacrifice in order to stay behind our prison bars or stay on the hamster wheel due to fear of failure. Prison bars that may exist because we bought into what the media or others tell us is a successful life.

Why not approach life like my 86 year-old friend, Lyle, does? He told me yesterday that he is happy because he realized earlier in life that “It is my choice.” He chooses to define what happiness and success mean to him.He experiments different ways to enjoy life by learning new things and not worrying about failures. He sees failures as life’s lessons. Because of this approach he has been able to enjoy many things in life. By the way, he was captain of his high school football team, a race car driver and married to a beautiful model! Sounds like an exciting life to me.

You will not be a successful entrepreneur if you are afraid to take some risks. Things don’t always work out the way we plan them. Take each failure by learning its lesson and build a stronger Will to achieve your Vision.

Here is to your Success in 2015. Remember to Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose on Invincible Monday.

Find out how I learned these tips and more from my Diamond Cutters, My Mentors and Coaches, pick up a copy of Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters today.

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Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page. This will allow me continue to write and share with you on a variety of topics.

Webinars Suck – Is That Right? – Part 4 of 4

Posted on December 19, 2014 by MarleneMB

Select the Right Webinar Provider

We are almost at the finish line for you to conduct successful Webinars. You may recall in Part 1, we wrote great content. In Part 2, we organized prior to the Webinar. In Part 3, we learned how to be Interactive with our participants. In this final part (4) you will learn how to select Webinar Providers. The Webinar Platform you choose as your Webinar “stage” is important. Do not use free, cheap or even expensive as your only criteria for selecting a Webinar provider.

Throughout my career in various positions, I have had to conduct Webinar sessions to a variety of audience: sales people, customers, Value Added Resellers (VARs), customer service representatives, etc. Now as a small business owners, I conduct Webinars as a part of Live a Diamond Life, a Life of Purpose to help people find their true life’s purposes. I also include Webinars as part of my Leadership program to corporations and organizations.

In all these position, I’ve found a webinar is only as good as the platform it is conducted on. At the early stage of the Webinar revolution, many people did not understand the concept that is was simply a conference call that allowed you to share content (data) from your desktop to multiple people simultaneously. Webinars are now widely accepted methods of sharing information.

The processes and platforms have also improved over the years. Yet there are still important matters to consider when selecting a provider.

1) Reliability – Are you able to connect successfully each time you dialing into the Webinar session? You know that making multiply tries to connect to platform gets old very quickly, as the moderator, presenter or participant. It creates frustration and leaves a bad impression on you and your company. You may avoid this by selecting a provider that offers service that has a high percentage of successful connection. This also means that you have to select the right connections to your home or corporate office. Don’t try to conduct a Webinar on a shoddy or shared Internet connection while at Starbucks or Panera!

2) Scalability – Whether you have 5 or 500 participants, you want to know that all parties can get an open port on the Webinar. Have you tried getting on a Webinar only to find out that the session has met the maximum access? If you are unsure of the number of participants, you may want to choose a provider that has a scalable product that can contract or expand based on the number of callers.

3) Stability – I recall a webinar that I was excited about learning to effectively share my blog articles. I registered for the session, included it on my calendar and dialed in. It wasn’t the clings and clangs that got to me, it was the constant dropping of the session. The platform would freeze up and force me to dial back in. The moderator’s voice faded in and out along with some voice clipping. It was a disastrous session. Many participants posted comments about it. The presenter offered a refund and a free session to make up for it. You can minimize this on your Webinar by conducting test sessions prior to the live session. Get others involved with your testing. Once you are satisfied, publish your live session.

4) Security – In this day and age of Hactivism, Identity Fraud, etc. protecting your participants information is important. If providing a strong privacy policy is part of your business, then you need to make choosing a provider with great security part of your decision making. There are providers that address security needs on Webinar platforms. You generally have to pay for these features. Free service providers may not guarantee that your Webinar participants information will be protected.

5) Flexibility – Your participants may use various devices and portals to access your Webinar session. Opt for a provider that offers access from multiple portals (Google Chrome, Explorer, FireFox, etc.) and from multiple devices (tablets, mobile phones and desktops). This will broaden your reach to many folks in the digital community.

6) Pricing – As mentioned prior, pricing should not be the single item to determine a provider; however, it is still important. You don’t want to pay a premium for a particular feature when you can get it for a reasonable rate for another provider. The Webinar arena is becoming more competitive with more providers coming onboard and more useful features being added. Know what your budget can afford and work with a provider that fits most of your other needs at a reasonable price.

7) Customer Service – I don’t know about you, but I prize great customer service. When I company offers great customer service to me, I am more willing to stay with them and purchase more products/services from them. If I’m experiencing issues with a Webinar session or trying to understand a particular feature, I appreciate connecting with a knowledgeable person on the phone that can help me. Ask about the availability of the customer service department before you sign on the dotted line. You don’t want to select a provider with limited or no customer support during a time that you may encounter issues on one of your Webinar sessions that is provider related.

I have used the services of a few providers to conduct my seminars: WebEx, GoToWebinar, join.me and others. I also know, freeconferencecall.com also has a Webinar offering that they call “Online Meeting.” I have not tried this offering yet. These providers all have strong and weak points.

Take the time to do your homework, compare each of these providers features, functionalities and all the points I highlighted in this article, previously. Give them a trial run. Most of them offer a trial period. Test them out. Then select the one that is right for you.

Give yourself a pat on the back! You hung in there for all four parts of this series. I hope that you have gained some information that will prove to be valuable to your Webinars’ success. Remember Webinars don’t have to Suck! Give them great Content, make it Organized, make it Interactive and select the Right Platform, most of all make it Fun!

Until next, keep Living a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose!

Find out how I learned these tips and more from my Diamond Cutters, My Mentors and Coaches, pick up a copy of Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters today.

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Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page. This will allow me continue to write and share with you on a variety of topics.

Webinars Suck – Is That Right? – Part 3 of 4

Posted on December 18, 2014 by MarleneMB

Take a Poll - Make Your Webinar Interactive — Take a Poll – Make Your Webinar Interactive

Interacting with Your Audience

Welcome back! In Part 1 you read about importance of good content, and in Part 2 you learned how to get organized in this four-part series. Now it is time to conduct your Webinar. Don’t fail by making your session! Your content may be technical, complex or perhaps it is a new concept that requires critical thinking. This doesn’t mean it has to be a Snoozer! You can make the Webinar interactive and fun.

Let’s get started…

1) Establish a rapport – Start your Webinar by establishing a great rapport with your audience. Tell them why they should pay attention to you. Lay the foundation of why you have authority or expertise about the subject. Share tidbits about yourself that may help to endear you to the audience. Or make them laugh; great humor disarms people. Remember, people buy from folks they like and trust.

2) That Monotone Voice – Did you ever get on a Webinar and the presenter voice makes you want to sleep? You find yourself constantly yawning. Using voice modulation will help to your audience pay attention. Raising and lowing your voice at certain point during the Webinar will make your points come across better. You can emphasize certain words and phrases such as “THIS product will…”

3) Get rid of the Ums, Ers, Likes – It is amazing to me how much folks don’t realize how often they use filler words as crutch words when speaking. It drives me crazy to hear a presenter saying: “and then, you can, like, use it to, um, tweak your, er, SEO ranking.” WHAT! With all those filler words the message gets lost. I’ve been a Toastmasters member from 2009. This organization helped me to learn to get rid of my penchant for using the word “like” every time I opened my mouth. Check it out at toastmasters.org. Visit a club. It may change your life. It did mine.

4) Ask questions – Asking questions of your audience and allowing them to reply either in the chat session or verbally helps to keep the audience tuned in. Utilizing questions keeps it interactive. Asking a question at the beginning, during and after the session is helpful in keeping the audience engage. It is a great way to gauge if the audience is learning from your presentation.

5) Affirmation Polls (Check in with Your Audience) – One of the tools I admire about my pastor is his use of “Amen” to validate that his parishioners are paying attention. He would make a statement then ask: “Can a get an Amen?” or he may say: “Clap, if you agree.” Checking in with your audience by polling them with a question or statement that prompts an immediate response is a great way to ensure they are following along.

6) Offer Give-aways to Make it Fun – Tell the participants that “N” amount of respondents will receive a special discount or a give-away item for doing “xyz.” People like gifts and discounts. It could be a free e-book, consultation session, or discount on the next Webinar.

One of my best experiences on a Webinar was a few years ago. The presenter, Lewis Howe, demonstrated how establishing the right LinkedIn Profile can help to increase the participant’s visibility on LinkedIn. This would in turn make the participant more attractive to future employers and recruiters. Lewis had the participant modify his/her profile with keywords during the Webinar. This action caused the participants ranking in his/her area of expertise to increase.

When Lewis was finished he gave a Call to Action to purchase a more detailed session for successfully navigating LinkedIn. The response rate was very high to his Call to Action. You too could increase the success of your Call to Action by keeping your clients and future clients engaged through interactive, informative and fun Webinars.

You have created great content, got yourself organized for your Webinar and you have everything set to make it an interactive session for you participants. But what about the platform? Which Webinar provider should you select? Part four, the final part of this series will give you some information how to select a provider.

We are almost at the finish line for you to conduct successful Webinars. The Webinar Platform you choose as your Webinar “stage” is important. Do not choose free, cheap or even expensive as your only reason for selecting a Webinar provider.

Find out how I learned these tips and more from my Diamond Cutters, My Mentors and Coaches, pick up a copy of Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters today.

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Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page. This will allow me continue to write and share with you on a variety of topics.