GroupCoaching Now Available!

Put the Power of a Group – and a Coach – to Work for You and Your Business

Some of the most common things I hear as a Business Coach are:

“I love my business but I can’t seem to move it forward and make the profit I need – or a profit at all!”

“I’m not sure this is really the right business for me”

“Do I have what it takes to make this work?  What is it going to take to make it work?” 

“I know this a great idea but I don’t know how to get it off the ground”

And, too often, “I would love to have business coaching but I can’t afford it!”

In response to these issues, I am very excited to announce the first Group Business Coaching Program for Women Entrepreneurs from On Track and On Purpose! 

I passionately believe in the power of coaching, and I want it to be accessible to as many women entrepreneurs as possible.  So I have developed a Group Business Coaching format designed to move you forward with your business powerfully, and at a far lower cost than individual coaching.  I am happy to say that I am ready to launch the first group!

Who is the Group Coaching Program for?

The first Group Coaching Program is a three month program designed for women entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of creating their business.  This would include:

·         Those in the “I have a great idea for a business” stage

·         Those who have started a business but it is still in the fledgling stage

·         Those who have been creating a business for a while but have not had the success they want – what I think of as hobbies masquerading as businesses!

·         Those who are thinking about or working on a business and are plagued by uncertainty about whether it is the right business for them

·         Those who are working on creating or building more than one business and can’t make a choice of which one to focus on

If you are ready to make the commitment to move from a hobby to a business, or you have a great idea that you want to develop in to a business, what you need is a plan.  That’s right, a business plan.

In my experience, many entrepreneurs never create the type of business plan they need for their particular business, and this is a major reason why they don’t create the success they want at the rate they want it to happen.  Success doesn’t just happen from following your passion, it requires planning and hard work as well.   

Planning and hard work, huh?  That doesn’t sound inspiring.  You may be thinking, I’m working hard already, and it’s not making the difference I thought it would.  I know, I’ve been there!  That’s exactly where coaching and a real business plan make all the difference.

Consider that, when you a crystal clear about what your goal is and why it matters to you and the steps you are going to take to get there, hard work is not a problem.  It’s exciting and fulfilling and yes, even fun!  It’s when we’re working hard but not sure about where we’re going and whether we’re on the right track that we get discouraged and lose focus and momentum.

So, no more going it alone!  You can do it, but be smart, don’t try to be superwoman, do it with a group and a coach and a format all laid out for you to create a killer business plan and clear, simple action steps to take you exactly where you want to go!

So, ready for the details?

·         The Group Business Coaching  Program will be limited to six women in each group. 

·         We will have three one hour group calls per month to move you powerfully and quickly through the process.

·         Each group will have its own dedicated login pages on the On Track and On Purpose website, with a group forum so that you can easily communicate and support each other between calls, ask me and each other questions and share your obstacles and triumphs

·         Your business plan will be reviewed and commented on by me and, if you want, at least two other members of the group (willingness to review and comment on others’ plans is a requirement for being in the course)

·         There will be homework for everyone in the group, most of which will be personalized to your particular business needs

·         The cost of the program is $150 per month, a substantial savings over the cost of individual coaching ($350 per month).  The program will last three months, for a total cost of $450, and I have several payment options available.

·         I anticipate the start date to be within the next few weeks, as soon as the class fills and we pick a time for the group calls.  One of the reasons for limiting the group to six will be to keep it simple to find a call time that works for everyone!   

FYI, I will be offering other Group Business Coaching Programs in the next month or so, directed at different types of Business Coaching needs.  The next one, which is still in development, will be focused on marketing and branding and USP, and creating and implementing a powerful marketing strategy for long term business growth.  Stay tuned for future announcements when I roll out that program!

If you are interested in joining the first Group Coaching Program, or have questions about it, please call me at 401 338-5551, or email ann@ontrackandonpurpose.com.  Can’t wait to hear from you!

And one last thing – I just have not been able to come up with a great catchy name for this program.  I welcome any and all suggestions – or maybe this first group will help me come up with the name over the course of the three months!

Number 1 on Google? Yes!

Try this – humor me – please go to Google and type in “women entrepreneurs business coach” – come on, go do it.   There I am – www.ontrackandonpurpose.com at Number One!!!!Also listed number one for:“Coach for women entrepreneurs”“Coaching for women entrepreneurs”

“Women entrepreneurs business coaching”

“Woman entrepreneur coach”

For “Women’s business coach” I am number 9

And for “Women’s business coaching” I’m still on that critical first page in position number 10!

How awesome is that? 

I’m soooo psyched, and I want to thank you all for your support and interest and everything – you all ROCK!

Now, (deep breath) other than totally making my day, what does that all mean? 

Note: Those of you who are just psyched for me but have no interest in reading anything about keywords and online marketing should feel free to stop reading now.  No problem!  If you want to learn a little about SEO (search engine optimization) and keywords, read on!

Well, let me be clear about this – the fact is, there are not hundreds – or even dozens – of people searching for those exact keywords every day.  But there are some, and those people who are typing in those words are really looking for what I have to offer – it’s very targeted traffic– which is fabulous!

I have been working hard to “brand” myself as the women entrepreneurs business coach, and expanding and improving the website to be a resource site for women entrepreneurs, so it’s awesome to see some results so quickly. 

As any of you who have a website know, the search engines can be incredibly hard to get any kind of decent ranking on.  The competition is fierce, and you have to navigate through the confusing and ever changing world of SEO – Search Engine Optimization.

Among other things, you have to figure out what keywords people are actually searching for, and there can be a huge difference in both popularity (how many searches are performed) and competitiveness (how many other websites out there you are competing against to get that top ten ranking) simply from a very small change in the search term you type in.

It’s almost impossible to figure this out for yourself without the use of a search tool which will tell you how often a keyword phrase is searched for and what the competition is.  The very best tool for this is the one I use, Wordtracker.  Wordtracker allows you to see how often your keywords are searched for, how many other websites are competing for them, and suggests other, related keywords that you would never have thought of on your own.   

Wordtracker is not free, it’s a paid subscription service, but you can sign up for shorter or longer periods of time to use it depending on your needs, and, quite frankly, there just is no other tool that does what it does.

Here’s an example of how a small change in a keyword term makes a big difference: I made it into the elite top ten, first page on Google for “women’s business coach” but if you look for me under the results for “womens business coach” (no apostrophe), you’ll see I’m not there.  I’m not sure how far back I am, I stopped looking after the third page – (although there is a reference to me on the top of the third page, a review of my business coaching on a popular women entrepreneurs website called www.empowerwomennow.com.)  And, (I love this!), when you type it in without the apostrophe, Google asks you, “Did you mean “women’s business coach”? (like Google is the grammar police!) so if anyone clicks on that they’ll get taken to the page I’m on!  So great – it feels like payback for all my years of being a grammar nut.

But back to your keyword/SEO lesson — why would that be, that an apostrophe makes such a big difference?  Fact is, most people don’t bother with apostrophes when they search online, which means the version without the apostrophe is more competitive, which means my website, which is relatively new, hasn’t worked its way up to the front page – yet!

Understanding how all this works allows me to both target more popular (and more competitive!) search terms such as “women entrepreneurs,” which will provide me with a lot more traffic once I move up in the rankings, and also benefit me now from the less popular but extremely targeted and less competitive keywords, such as “women entrepreneurs business coach,” where I am – did I already mention this? – Number One!

If you are planning to rely on online marketing for any substantial portion of your business, I can’t stress enough the importance of either using the Wordtracker tool or hiring an SEO professional who is using it.  There’s a lot more to getting on the first page of Google than just using the right keywords, but there’s no doubt they are a huge piece of the puzzle, and you need to have the right tool to make them work for you!

Okay, enough with the lesson, time to celebrate!  Number One on Google?  You’re lookin’ at her! 

FeelingStuck?Break It Down!

I’m Stuck!  Stuck, stuck, stuck!

We all know the feeling.  It comes in a lot of different flavors  – being stuck, in a rut, paralyzed, no forward movement, don’t know what to do, don’t know what you want, know what you want but have no idea how to get started, afraid to do the wrong thing, second guessing, how do I know it’s the right choice, feeling trapped, don’t have the time, don’t have the money, don’t have the time or the money – yuck, I’m feeling all squished and stuck just talking about it!

So how do you get unstuck?  Well, of course all stuckness is not the same, but I’d like to talk about a very particular kind of stuck that is easier to get past than you might think.

Is there something that’s really important to you, some project you want to create, or some area of your life that’s not working the way you want, but you just feel stuck and stopped in trying to get anything going, or creating the change you want?  Like maybe you have a great idea, at home or work, and you’ve had that idea for, oh, I don’t know, years, and you just never seem to get started.  Or you keep saying you want to create more romantic time with your honey, but somehow you just can’t seem to create it and make it happen.  Or, of course, you want to start your own business, (I know who I’m talking to!) and you get a few things going and then you hit a place where you just can’t move past it.

For a lot of things in life – probably most of them – what’s missing to get you in action is very simple.  You just need to break it down.  Yeah, really, most of time that’s what it takes, and even when it takes more, breaking it all down into small steps is still a huge part of the process.

So, how do you do that?

Try this: Pick something you want to accomplish, where you’ve been stuck, something that just seems so big or so new to you that you don’t even know where to start.  Got one? 

Okay, let’s go:  Ask yourself, what’s the first step?  What’s the first, little baby step that you could take?  For some of you, the answer was obvious, you do actually know at least one step you could take now.  (For you guys, okay, so either go do it or, if you truly can’t do it now, go schedule it in your planner or system.)  For some of you, though, the honest answer is, “I don’t know!  That’s the problem, I don’t even know what the first step is!”

Okay, when you don’t even know what your first step is, and that is what’s stopping you, then here are some other questions to help get you going:

What would I need to find out – what info do I need – to be able to figure out what my first step is?

Who could I talk to or where could I go to get that information?

For example, let’s say you have an idea for a business, you’ve done a bunch of research, you have some idea of what it’s going to take, but you’ve also concluded that you don’t want to do this alone, you want a business partner.  And you keep thinking how great it would be to have a business partner, but you don’t have anyone in mind, and you don’t know how to find a business partner for this business that doesn’t even exist yet, so you keep thinking it would be great, but you don’t know how, but it would be just great, but how can you find them, and it would be so much easier if you had a partner, but you have no idea how to find them … and around and around and around it goes in your head, getting nowhere, and you are – STUCK!

So how do you get unstuck with that?  You break it down, like this:

Project is: Finding a Business Partner

Problem is: You don’t know what your first step is, so you are taking no action.

Solution is: Break it down like this:  First, you ask yourself, “What information do I need to be able to figure out what my first step is?”

Answer (Well, this is how I would answer the question!): If you want to find something, you need to define what it is you are looking for.  So first, get really clear about who this partner would be – what kind of qualities they would have, what kind of skills, what kind of working relationship will you have, man or woman (if you care), what kind of experience, what will they bring to the table?  Create your ideal business partner.  Can you do that?  Of course!  That alone will start to get you unstuck!

Once you know what you are looking for, then you ask yourself again, what’s the next step?  Well, it’s obvious that the more people who know what you want, the faster you will find it.  So you need to get the word out.  For some people, that could mean advertising or going on Monster or something like that, but for everyone the obvious next step is, just start talking to people! 

Tell people about your business and what you are looking for in a business partner – be specific, get in conversation with all kinds of people, and see what comes your way.  You will be amazed at what happens just from clearly telling lots of people (at least several people a day) exactly what you want.

As a result of those conversations, you are going to have a whole lot more information, other peoples’ perspectives and ideas, prospective partners, even prospective customers and employees – there will be so much energy and excitement as you focus on and talk about what you want, that you’ll wonder how you ever could have been stuck about any of this.

Still keep asking yourself, “What’s the next step?”  Once things have started, you’ll no longer be just slowly creating one step at a time – they’ll be so many steps popping up in your mind the problem will be keeping them organized and on track, not coming up with them!

So we took what seemed like a big problem and, instead of trying to find the whole solution, we just created a couple of very do-able, sensible first steps, and voila, bye bye stuckness, hello action!  Is the whole project – finding a partner – handled yet?  No, but you are in action about it, you are excited, you are networking and connecting and  – most importantly — you are not stuck!

–Ann

Only 112 To Go!

Did you know there are only 112 left to go?

Only 112?  112 what?

There are 112 days left in 2007.  Then it will be gone, never to be repeated. 

Are you up for making the rest of 2007 AMAZING?! 

In case you happen to have forgotten, (we all do sometimes), I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that you are an amazing woman. Yes, you, the one saying, “No, no, not me, she’s just talking to the rest of those women.”  Yes, YOU.  You have such talent and passion and so much to give, and on behalf of the rest of the world that needs what only you can give, I’m asking you this:

What are you up for in the next 112 days?   

Let’s fast forward to New Year’s Eve.  You are with the people you love and enjoy the most, whether you are out at a party or (like me!) at home enjoying a great evening with your honey or best friends (or both)!

You have a glass of champagne in your hand.  You raise it for a toast.  You say,

“Here’s to 2007!  What a fabulous year!  This was the year that I……….”

Well, what will you say?  What do you want that hasn’t happened yet, and what are you willing to do to make it happen? 

What’s it gonna take?

How great will it feel when you’ve done it!?

Take a moment and stop – yes, right now, this is important – and write down your goals for the rest of this year.  Not just the stuff you think you should do, but the things you want to do!

Then pick one and break it down into steps, and get started right now if you can, or get out your planner or system and schedule those steps in.  That really is all you need to do to get started.  Really!  You can do it.

You can just pick one, or how about declaring a goal that excites you for each big area of your life:

Work

Relationship

Family/kids

Fun!

Well-being

You name it!

Then I want to know, how will you finish this declaration?

By the end of 2007, I will be toasting these AWESOME accomplishments:

 

 

Email me what you created, and I’ll include some of them in a follow up posting.  Take this opportunity to declare what you are up to, create a future you are really excited about! And wouldn’t you love to hear what some of the other great women in this group are up to?  I know they’d love to hear about you, so create those goals and send ‘em in!  (Of course, I won’t include anything you don’t want to share – if you want me to know the goal but not to post it, just say so when you send it.)

I can’t wait to hear what the rest of this year will be like for you. 

–Ann

Ten Amazing Women

Ten Amazing Women of Purpose“Those people who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those of us who are doing it.”  AnonymousThe synchronicity of life absolutely delights me.  I found this story of ten extraordinary ordinary women (see link below) and knew I wanted to share it with all of you, and then what should I stumble upon next but the quotation above, which could seriously have been written especially for each and every one of them.  I loved the quotation so much I moved it right to the top of my “Inspiration Hits” page – (if anyone knows who the author is, please let me know!)  So, as you’ll have noticed, my whole deal is about knowing what your purpose is, crystal clear, staying connected to it no matter what, and there will be no stopping you.  That’s what I say.  That’s what On Track and On Purpose is about.  And that’s what I see in the stories of each of these women – they have accomplished things no one thought was possible – and were probably told so many times – but none of that stopped them from doing it anyway! I say that’s because each of them is a woman with a purpose that’s much bigger than her own ego or fears or circumstances or anything else.  Much bigger.   Follow this link to read this about these ten women – you may never have heard of them before, but you won’t forget them!  What’s your purpose today?

Ten Amazing Women

–Ann

USP – Why you have to – have to – have to have it!

What’s the big deal about  USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? 

Your USP is essentially your answer to the question, “Why should anyone buy from, or do business with, you?”

One of the first things to understand is that most businesses do not have a compelling answer to that question.  Try this experiment over the next few weeks – as you meet people and find out what they do for a living or where they work, ask them some version of, “What is special about your company?” “Why should people buy from you rather than your competitors?” 

You will probably find that many people either don’t have an answer at all without having to really stop and think about it, or that if they do, the answer will be something in the realm of, “We have great customer service, we are very reliable, we have the best quality at the lowest prices, we really care about our customers.” 

Does that sound familiar?  Please realize that all of that may be true, but it is not a USP – not unless your competition is advertising something like, “Our customer service is fair to middling, we show up on time for the most part, our quality is slightly below average, we are consistently over-priced and we don’t much care whether we ever see you again as long as you spend a lot the first time you come in.  Take care, now!”

Good News/Bad News about USP: 

So the Bad News part is, coming up with a powerful and compelling USP is not easy – that’s why most companies never do it, or never do it effectively. 

But the Good News is that means that if you are willing to do the work of creating a great USP for your company, you will have a huge edge over your competitors. 

A good way to better understand USP is to look at some great examples.  Please note that you can probably name every single one of these companies when you read their USP slogan – that’s the power of a great USP!

“When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight.”

“The nighttime, coughing, achy, sniffling, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine.”

“Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.”

“Because I’m worth it.”

“The ultimate driving machine.”

“Finger lickin’ good.”

Interested in the kind of success those companies have had?  Aren’t we all?

To have the kind of impact those have, your USP has to be short, concise and compelling.  Just saying you have great service isn’t going to cut it.  If your customer service really is the very best out there, and that’s what sets you apart, you have to find a way to express it that gets people’s attention. 

Another hugely successful company did just that with their USP slogan “We Try Harder.”  They took the idea of customer service and encapsulated it in three words that had an impact, created a definite expectation in people’s minds that they would be treated better at Avis than at the top company, and business boomed.  

So how do you create a powerful and effective USP for your company?   

Here are some ways to approach it and develop it, but please remember, be patient with yourself.  It can take some time to develop your USP, and it usually involves more than one person, so discuss it with either other people in your company, or, if you are a “one woman army” business right now, discuss it with people whose input you value, including your customers.

Here is a list of questions to ask yourself as you begin to develop your USP:

·What makes you unique in the marketplace?

·What need does your product or company fill or address?

·What pain or discomfort does your product or service alleviate or take away (Think of Nyquil – “the night time, coughing, achy, sniffling, etc…”)

·What do you do better than the competition (are you faster, more thorough, more knowledgeable, more reliable, etc) and why, specifically, does that make a difference to your potential customer?

·Do you have a technological edge, a process or equipment no one else has, and why does that make a difference in what you can provide your customers?

·Character/personality – is your business based largely on you and how you express yourself, your unique “voice” or point of view?  How can you capture that in a few words?

·What needs are going unfulfilled in your industry – can you expand or enhance what you do to fill those needs, and how can you express that?

·Education – do you do a great job of educating your customers?  What does that provide for them (e.g., peace of mind in their purchase)?

·Do you offer, or could you offer, a better, longer or more comprehensive warranty than the industry norm? 

·Are your products the very best quality available, and if so, why, and how will that make a difference?

·What hopes, fears or concerns do customers have about purchasing your product or service, and what can you or do you do to address those hopes, fears or concerns?

·What about your product or service makes life better for your customers?

If you find these questions hard to answer, even daunting, please remember that you are having exactly the kind of reaction that most people have, and that is exactly the reason why most people never develop a compelling USP for their business.  It is hard, and most entrepreneurs keep putting it off,  something else seems more urgent, they like the slogans or marketing they are using now and they seem to be working “okay,” and maybe they’ll get to that USP thing eventually. 

And most businesses fail within two years.  You may disagree, but I’m saying there’s a connection there.

Don’t be one of the businesses that folds from lack of clarity and focus about what you provide for your customers.  Set aside time regularly to engage with this whole USP issue, play with it, have fun with it!  Bring other people into the process, ask your customers why they do business with you (the answers may surprise you!), and as you find words you like, try them out.  You don’t need to change your business cards every time you come up with a new slogan, but when you find one that feels good, put it on your website, use it as an ad headline, and see what kind of results and response you get.

That’s what I am doing now, as I engage with developing my own USP.  I know I’m not there yet, but I’m in the process.  Part of my USP has to do with the fact that all the coaching I do is inside of my client’s stated greater purpose (which should be pretty obvious after the last three blog posts!)  So what does that provide for my clients?  Well, the bottom line is, I’m just never going to coach you to build a business that you won’t enjoy – I refuse, I don’t care how good the idea is, if it’s not something you are passionate about and it’s not in alignment with your purpose, then hire someone else, I am not the coach for you.  

If you are truly committed to success in your company, take the time.  Not only will your USP be invaluable in branding and growing your company, but it also provides tremendous clarity and focus for you and everyone who works for you.  It is probably the single best investment of your time you can make for your business, so go for it!–Ann

 

Purpose is Power

Creating a Statement of Your Life Purpose — that is one of the first and most important things that I help my coaching clients do.  And I get a lot of different reactions to that one!  I’ve heard, for example:

• “that’s great, I think I already know what it is!”  
• “that’s sounds really hard, I don’t even know where to start,” 
• “I’ve always wanted to do that, I know it would make a difference,”
• an uncomfortable, blank silence, which I am likely to intrepret as “why the heck is she asking me to do that, I thought she was going to help me get more customers?!  This is business coaching?”

Yes, it is business coaching – the kind that helps you create the life and business you really want.  In my view, any business coach that isn’t working with you about something as important as Your Purpose isn’t really coaching you, they’re probably doing something more like consulting.  Business consulting can be extremely valuable, but it’s not coaching. 

Personally, I have no interest in helping you build a business that you won’t enjoy or find fulfilling, which is why I make sure you define for yourself and me what matters most to you — and I call that Creating Your Purpose.

So why is purpose so important, and what kind of difference does it make in “real life”  and “real business”?

Think of a time when you have been happy and very productive and effective in your life.  Maybe a job you loved or a project you took on because it was important to you.  It might not have to do with work or making money, it might be the best times you’ve had with your family, your kids, or something you volunteered to do, a political campaign you worked on that you were passionate about.  It might have just been yesterday, it might have been years ago. 

Are you thinking about a time like that? Consider that what made that so great was that you were committed to something bigger than yourself, something that mattered to you, that inspired you.  Consider who you were in that time, what kind of person you were being when you were so happy and inspired and working to create something that mattered to you. 

It feels great to be in that kind of space, you feel powerful, you feel energized, you feel clear, you are passionate, you feel like you can do anything!  There were obstacles that came up, it didn’t always go the way you wanted, but it didn’t matter, because you knew why you were doing it and you just kept going and you accomplished things you never knew you could do!

I’m saying that, even if you didn’t think of yourself as being connected to a greater purpose, that is what was going on.  It’s just part of the way human beings are wired, the way we are put together — when we are playing a big game, connected to and inspired by what I am calling a purpose, we are very powerful and we tend to be happy and effective and fulfilled.  When we are not connected to something bigger than ourselves, we tend to be distracted, focused on what’s not working, unfulfilled, stressed out, overwhelmed, unclear, frustrated — do you really want me to go on? 

It seems to me that a lot of people, probably most people, never define for themselves what their purpose is in life.  They may find the idea of that intimidating, or even arrogant, “Who am I to say I have a big purpose in life?”  Or they think it sounds too much like predestination, the idea of some purpose being imposed on them from outside of themselves.  Or they are afraid they’ll “get it wrong” if they try to create a purpose. 

So they may get caught up in and inspired by a purpose here and there at different times in their lives, and they look back on those times and say, “That was really great, I loved doing that, or being part of that group, or knowing I was making a difference.”  And they wish they could feel that way again, but mostly they get caught up in all the details that life is full of and they just don’t know how to make that connection. 

What I’m saying is, you do not have to live your life at the mercy of random purposes that may or may not come around and knock on your door and inspire you!  You get to say what your purpose is, you even get to change it anytime you want to, you get to be powerful and passionate and focused and productive and fueled by a powerful purpose all day long, anytime you want, if you just decide that’s the way you want to live your life! 

I created this purpose for myself: My purpose is to inspire and empower people to discover and fulfill their purpose in life, and to do it with passion, ease, joy and frequent belly laughs!  Okay, I just added the belly laughs part, and I really like it.  See, I told you you can change your purpose any time you want — it’s your purpose! Because I created that, I get the opportunity to live inside that every day, which is amazing. 

Let’s be real here, I do not always take advantage of that opportunity!  Sometimes I am totally in my head, focused on what’s wrong and stressed and grouchy and not exactly being someone who is going to inspire and empower anybody!  I do go there sometimes, but the bottom line is, I know better, and I know that’s not what my life is about, and I have the capacity to get out of that and get out fast, and I do! 

And it’s my purpose that I use to do that.  

And I usually laugh my head off at myself in the process, because I soooooo do know better than to let myself get into that state in the first place, but, there it is, I did it again.  (See the belly laugh part  — it really is part of my purpose!)  If you are starting to think that a purpose is a pretty fabulous thing to have, then I think I’ve done my job for today. 

So how do you create a powerful, passionate, awesome expression of your purpose?  I’ll get into that more next time, but if you are inspired, don’t wait, take a crack at it now.  What do you love, what are you passionate about, what makes you happy, what difference do you want to make in the world or in your family — those are great questions to start with.  If you can’t quite get your head around your life purpose right now, try creating a purpose for today.  Like “my purpose for today is to be connected with the people I love” or “my purpose today is to find the humor in  everything and lighten up!”  Or how about this one, “my purpose today is to do only what makes me truly happy.”  Or “my purpose today is to create clarity and order in my life.”  I got a million of ‘em — take one of those or make your own, and just try out intentionally living a purposeful life for today and have fun with it.  See what happens!  Go forth and be purposeful! 

–Ann

Turning It Around

In the past few days I have been connecting with some powerful, fun and kick-butt people — and am creating joint ventures with at least three of them. It is amazing the difference it makes to be in action and in conversation with great, positive people. It is soooooo easy to let my headspace get clogged and down and focused on the stuff that stinks, but it is truly amazing what can happen when I just get in conversation, get in to a dialogue instead of that hamster wheel of a monologue that spins around and around going nowhere in my head!

It’s like that saying: “Your mind is like a bad neighborhood — get out and get out fast! And if you have to go back in, bring a good friend with you!”

This past weekend, I was not in a good space — all I could focus on in my life was what wasn’t working — and man, that stuff was REALLY not working. And to make it worse, my husband was in about the same place — which doesn’t happen that often, usually we kind of balance each other out better than that. But we were both scared, really down and feeling like we just weren’t going to be able to pull off all this big stuff we’ve taken on.

Finally at one point I said, “Let’s not feel this way anymore!” He looked at me like, what are you talking about? So I said it again. “Let’s — not — feel — this — way — any — more!

I just couldn’t stand it and I just got to where I absolutely refused to feel that sh—tty for one second longer! That alone shifted things a lot, and then we started to do everything differently — we started making plans to act on ideas we had had, we made some phone calls to people who we knew would be positive and helpful, we brainstormed, we started joking around, we pulled out our homework from the Jay Abraham / Gordon Bizar business mentoring program we’re doing and started reading — we just took it on.

What a difference. What an AWESOME difference.

One of the people I’ve studied with says, over and over, that one of the things it takes to succeed in business is absolute dogged persistence. I love that, because it’s so not glamorous, not inspiring, but very real, just saying it like it is. It does take absolute dogged persistence, so be sure you’re in a business that you LOVE, because if you’re not, that dogged persistence part is going to get real old, real fast, and you just won’t keep going there. Yeah, sometimes persistence looks like making one more and yet one more phone call, but sometimes it looks like getting yourself out of your own head — again — and getting connected to why you are doing all of this — again — getting yourself inspired and psyched and ready to rock — again! And when I get my head into that kind of space, it’s amazing the people and ideas and opportunities that show up – like the ones up at the top of this post!

What On Track and On Purpose Is About

This is my very first ever blog post, so I thought it would make a whole lot of sense to say something about what this website and my coaching are all about.  So let’s start with the name!  On Track and On Purpose is the name of my coaching business because that is a very simple way to express my approach to creating a great life as well as a great business.

“On Purpose” means this: when you know what your purpose is, and I mean crystal clear so you can express it to anyone, anytime, then it only takes about a second at any given time to be able to check in with yourself and be sure that what you are doing, right now, is in alignment with it. If it is, then you are “on purpose,” and if not, you are “off purpose” and you will be a whole lot happier a whole lot sooner if you get yourself back on!

Here’s an example that many of you may be able to relate to!  My purpose in life is to inspire and empower people to discover and fulfill their purpose, and to do it with passion, ease and joy.   (Why is that my purpose in life? Because I said so!)  Well, the other day I was trying to get some work done and one of my daughters was, well let’s just say she wasn’t being helpful.  She is obsessed with Webkinz and would not stop talking about them and asking to use my computer and I started to get really mad — but —  I stopped myself, just barely, and checked in with my purpose. Obviously, it took not even a second to know that I was not “on purpose,” and not much longer to get back on again, listen to her from a completely different place, and resolve the conflict with ease. I mean really, it was easy and it was not going that way before I caught myself!  Inspiring and empowering people includes everyone, hard though that is to remember sometimes! 

Having my purpose so clearly defined for myself gives me a tremendous amount of power over my life and how it looks, moment to moment. My clients tell me the same thing — some of them had some idea about what their purpose was, they had played with the idea before, but when they did the work with me and created language for it that inspired them, it has made such a difference and given them power in their life they just never had before.  For me it rocks having that ability to catch myself right in the moment and get back to what my life is really about.  Because honestly, my life is most definitely not about getting upset over my kids Webkinz obsession, and it is about empowering and inspiring whoever I am dealing with, whether it’s a client, a customer, or my kids!

“On Track” is next — the “track” is the plan I’ve created, for my business and my life. It’s a plan for fulfilling my purpose in my daily life, and it involves a very clear vision of how I want my life to look in 5 years, and in 1 year, and exactly what I will need to do now, this week, this month, to forward that plan. So being “on track” means workng my plan, refining it, staying focused, forwarding the plan I have for achieving my goals and dreams.

Here’s why having the the concept “on track and on purpose” as part of my life makes my life so much simpler: When a new opportunity presents itself, or a situation arises, all I have to do is ask myself two questions. “Is this opportunity, or is the way I’m handling this situation, On Purpose (in alignment with my purpose)?” And then “Is it On Track (will it forward my plan for success)?”

It becomes very, very simple to sort out those things which are not worth my time or energy as well as catching myself wasting my energy by the way I’m dealing with something. (Like the Webkinz thing).  It keeps me very focused on the things that are most important to me and that give me joy. And that is living life On Track and On Purpose.