Energy Coaching

In a recent event where I talked about “De-cluttering Our Lives”, I noticed that one point hit home for the audience:  Information clutter. I presented ‘Information’ as one of the places in our lives where we don’t think we have clutter – but we do.  Information can come in the traditional shape of magazines, newspapers and junk mail that we can see piling up in our living room.  It can also come in the form of TV, movies and e-mails that makes us waste time and energy just by looking at them.

We rely on information so much that we are afraid of throwing away magazines, newspapers and outdated books simply because we think we might need them someday.  Notice the word ‘afraid’ here!  Whenever you see this word showing up, you know that your action is fear based.  Being afraid of letting go of something is totally related to the concept of scarcity, of not having enough.  And why are we afraid of not having enough information about a subject?  In this day and age of ‘google’ we can find information about anything and everything on the web!  Just type any word and see what comes up.  I found about 112,000,000 results for the word “smile”!

It’s not that information is bad but when we rely too much on external sources to make our decisions, we develop the habit of looking outside of ourselves for answers.  We look at others for answers instead of using our main resource:  Our gut feeling, our intuition – the place where our wisdom is!

Take a leap of faith this coming week.  Make one decision without looking at any piece of information or consulting anyone. Look inside for the answer instead.  Start small and begin develop this ‘muscle’ we all have.  Intuition is there for us to access; we all have it.  All we need to do is develop the habit of looking inside instead of outside.  Give your gut feeling a chance!

With energy,

Ana

Traveling is a wonderful thing.  It opens our minds, it relaxes us, it makes us think outside of the box. In the excitement of it all, I’ve been far and away from the blogosphere.  I miss it and I am back with a bit about my trip that I believe will be relevant for your business as well.

I normally do not favor talking about myself, however the experience we had in Brazil was phenomenal and produced some fabulous results to our company almost straight away.  We organized a conference with all our reps from all over the country in our headquarters in the city of Florianopolis.  We had a couple intentions in mind and one of them – the one I want to share with you today – was to share our vision and our values with our reps.

We are crystal clear about who we are as a company and how we make decisions.  We know what our vision is and what our values are and they determine every single move we make on a daily basis.  The fact that we were able to put those two things down in words and to communicate them to our team proved to be a recipe for success.  When we communicated the vision and our values to our reps we also showed them a slide show on where we apply them in our business.  They saw how we live what we believe and how it is possible to run a company with clarity and integrity.

They left the conference inspired and asking how they can create their own vision and discover their own values as well.  I created a program for them and shared within a few days after the conference.  We immediately saw the results of this; sales are up and our new line has made into three major department stores in the country literally overnight!

It’s essential to have a clear vision for our businesses and for our lives.  To know our values is to know what drives us and what makes us move forward.  To me, this is the most important part in the process of creating a business.  If you don’t know where you are going and what tools you have to get there, how in the world are you going to make it?

Feel free to share your vision with me and to contact me if you want to know more about how to create your vision and to find out about your values.  Once you know that, making decisions will be easier than ever before, you will save time and energy and clarity will be your constant companion.  Now, that sounds like a great way to run a life and a business!

With energy,

Ana

When we headed to the Amalfi Coast in Italy to celebrate my husband’s birthday, I wasn’t expecting to find so many people living their passion through managing their own business.  Being a coach who coaches mainly entrepreneurs, I have my eyes trained to spot people who are happy doing what they love and making a living out of it.  Still, I wasn’t exactly looking for “happy entrepreneurs” during our romantic getaway!

It turned out that many of the great restaurants we visited, were owned by happy entrepreneurs who are in love with their lives and their businesses.  Livia and Alfonso together with their two sons, own the two stars Michelin restaurant “Don Alfonso” in the small city of St. Agatha on the Amalfi Coast.  The family turned their wonderful state into a successful multi faceted business.  Besides being a delightful restaurant, “Don Alfonso” also has a charming and exclusive bed and breakfast which offers gourmet cooking classes during the summer.  They also bought a farm where they grow their organic vegetables and produce their own organic olive oil which they use to prepare their fabulous food.  Wish you could take home the delicious olive oil you just tasted?  Not to worry; they sell it at their magnificent library adjacent to the restaurant.  While at the library, you can also buy a copy of Alfonso’s beautiful book with his restaurant’s story and magnificent recipes.

As we tasted our delicious meal, Livia came around to say hello and to welcome us.  She had a natural glow which I can identify as something always present in a person who lives her passion.  She shared a bit of their story and invited us to tour their cellar and to step into the library to find out all about the cooking classes.  Before we knew it, my husband and me were making plans to come back the following year to stay at their bed and breakfast and to visit their restaurant in Macao as soon as we arrive to Hong Kong.  Wow, that was a first class sales pitch!  And all Livia was doing was simply sharing her passions with us!  Now, that’s a great way to approach your next potential client. How about thinking of it as sharing your passion instead of selling your services?

Talking to others about your business is simply sharing something that you deeply love and believe.  People do understand the genuine energy that flows from your eyes and from your words when you do that.  You are no longer “selling”; you are “sharing”. And that is very attractive!

Go ahead and let the “sharing” begin!

With energy,

Ana

PS:  If you are interested, check out “Don Alfonso’s website at http://www.donalfonso.com/en/restaurants.htm

One of the best things about running your own company is that you get to do it your way.  You are the one calling the shots.  You are the one in control.  The trick is that with that kind of power comes a new kind of responsibility.  Now you are the one responsible for your company’s decisions and you will be caught in the internal debate of what’s right for the business versus what’s right for the individuals involved.

The way my husband and I resolved this matter was to define early on the vision of our business, our values, and why we are in business in the first place.  We decided that the major reason we are in business is to make the world a better place.  With our company we have a chance to add to the world, to make a difference.  Some of the principles that guide us are:

• Giving back to the community by funding and promoting good works.
• Doing our daily work in an ethical and socially responsible way.
• Treating our customers and everyone involved with our company fairly and honestly.
• Supporting our employees in building balanced lives as well as interesting careers.
• Providing products of the highest quality and integrity.

Whenever we are faced with a decision, we let our principles guide us.  They come ahead of profit, no doubt.  As they say, a principle is not a principle until it costs you money.  But the bottom line is that once your values are clear and your vision is congruent to the way you operate it becomes a lot easier to create a company that you are proud of.

Creating a company gives you a chance to play a larger part in the world.  It is a question worth some thought:  In what ways can your company best add to the world?  If you are not sure, contact me and we can work on finding that clarity.  The first thing I ask my clients is if the have a clear vision for their company.  If they don’t, I encourage them to start from there.  When the vision is in place they move forward quite fast and with much more energy because they are truly inspired and not simply motivated.

As Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”  I invite you to be the change!

With energy,

Ana

I received this e-mail from Robert Middleton, a marketing expert.  His post is all about how to manage e-mail more efficiently.  We can all benefit from learning a tip or two about how to handle this great slave and horrible master.  E-mail has taken over our lives but it is not too late to make peace with it and to enjoy it for what it is:  A powerful communication tool.  If you wish to subscribe to his e-zine see the bottom for his website link.  Enjoy it!

With energy,

Ana

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Fight Email Tyranny
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By Robert Middleton – Action Plan Marketing

On Sunday evening while browsing our local Santa Cruz bookstore
I came across a wonderful book: The Tyranny of Email by John
Freeman.

Freeman spends the first six chapters of the book making a
powerful case for one rather sobering insight: We are all
hopelessly addicted to email. It has taken over our lives and we
have virtually no strategies to manage it.

The good news is that in the final chapter, “Don’t Send,” he
presents ten prescriptions for breaking the email addiction and
handling email with a degree of sanity. I’ll summarize them here,
but if you want the full impact, get the book!

1. Don’t Send

Email begets email. The more you send, the more you get. So
before you send an email message, take a few seconds to think:
How essential is this email? What’s it’s purpose? Could I combine
email messages to a single recipient in response to several
emails? It is urgent or could it wait? So slow things down a bit
and don’t be so reactive. Send email intentionally.

2. Don’t Check It First Thing in the Morning or Late at Night

Don’t you have a business so that you can have a life? And if the
very first thing you do in the day is check email, you are a slave
to email, not to your priorities. Much better to take some time to
plan your day, look at the appointments and priorities YOU have
first and plan how you’re going to get them done. Focus on the
big stuff and then email can fit more easily between the cracks.

3. Check It Twice a Day

We often check our email several times an hour. The truth is, it’s
not necessary. You won’t actually get behind. Better to schedule
time to “handle” email, so you can do it more completely. Can’t
reduce it to two times a day? Try three or at the most, hourly.

4. Keep a written To-Do List and Incorporate Email into It

Your best time management tool is a simple to-do list. I make a
weekly list of about 5 to 10 major items I want to complete that
week and then a daily list of 2 or 3 priority items for that day.
Email is something I fit between these priorities but don’t let it
dominate my day.

5. Give Good Email

The best emails are short, concise and clear. After all, email is
about communication not a deluge of information. Take an extra
minute to proof your email, make sure the message is clear and
also makes a specific request or promise for action. Include your
phone number in your email signature so that they can easily call
you if needed. I also proof my email for typos and format the
email for easy readability such as using bold type.

6. Read the Entire Incoming Email before replying

We’ve all done it. We scan an email quickly and dash off a reply.
Then we read the bottom part we missed and realize our response
was incomplete. So we send another email. Meanwhile you’ve
gotten an email back, trying to clarify this… Again, the key is to
do email intentionally. Write and respond with the intention of
moving something forward without confusion.

7. Do not Debate Complex or Sensitive Matters by Email

Sometimes you just need to pick up the phone. Nuances of
emotion are hard to express in writing. Especially when you’re in
the habit of dashing off emails quickly. Remember that you have
a relationship with your correspondent. Treat that relationship
with care, and communicate in a way that will get the best
outcome. Besides, a quick phone call can often be faster than
writing an email.

8. If You Have to Work as a Group by Email, Meet Your
Correspondents Face-to-Face

In my one-year Marketing Mastery Program we connect by
teleconference, email and phone. But I also hold a 3-day
workshop at the beginning of the program so that people can
connect person-to-person. They get to know each other, feel more
comfortable with everyone and a more powerful community is
created this way. When they send emails after the workshop, they
are no longer emailing to strangers.

9. Set Up Your Desk to Do Something Else Besides Email

A big desk helps. My computer is in the middle of a v-shaped
desk and I have four feet on each side of the computer for my
planning books, for taking notes, for my laptop computer that
acts as my “jazz jukebox,” etc. Yes, the computer is the central
hub of my business, but lots of space leaves me options to do
other things than be on my computer.

10. Schedule Media-free Time Every Day

What do we do after our full day at our computers? We visit
Facebook, watch TV and play video games! We are not only
addicted to email, we are addicted to electronic media to the
point of obsession. I include myself in this. If you don’t have a TV,
I honor you! But for the sake of your own well being, make sure
to unplug for several hours a day. If you don’t, you’re opening the
door for serious stress issues.

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: Work at handling email consciously
and intentionally. It’s one of the most powerful communication
mediums in the world but it is both inescapable and addictive. It
can severely damage your quality of life if you don’t take the kind
of steps outlined in the article above. And do your self a favor and
get John Freeman’s book: The Tyranny of Email. Powerful stuff.

What are a few of your tips for managing email consciously?
Please share on the More Clients Blog.

http://actionplan.blogs.com