In 2009, when I heard that TEDx was coming to San Antonio, I remember thinking how fantastic it would be for the city. I never imagined that I would have the chance to speak. Yet in October of 2010, I did.

I did not speak about Sanera, Sanera Camp or even about business. I spoke about a topic that is dear to me because I lived it: the effects of growing up with two special needs siblings or being a “glass child.”

Glass children are healthy children who have brothers or sisters with special needs. They are typically emotionally neglected, experience severe pressure to be problem-free and perfect, take on parental responsibilities within the family at a young age and have an overwhelming need to make others happy. All this while receiving little nurturing and support in their development years.

You have the chance to make a difference in the life of a glass child. Will you help me spread the message? Send this, Tweet this, Facebook it to parents who have special needs and healthy children, to adult glass children, to pastors and rabbis who have glass children in their congregations and to teachers who have glass children in their classrooms. The more who hear = the more who can make an impact.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSwqo-g2Tbk

I’m sick and tired of seeing entrepreneurs fail. In the last two weeks, three people I know closed their businesses and two others filed for bankruptcy.

Gosh darn it!

It’s not easy being an entrepreneur.

We all have our moments when we hit a wall and are tempted to throw in the towel. I have yet to meet a successful entrepreneur who hasn’t failed spectacularly in one way or another. Further, people, who you think are incredibly self-confident, regularly tell me how scared they are.

I don’t want to see anymore entrepreneurs go through the dark times without support. I realize I can’t “save” everyone, but there is something more that I can do and I want to invite you to be a part of it.

I’m launching Project Entrepreneurs Inspire on Facebook. Each week, I will feature an entrepreneur who will share their business advice and experience while they keep it real. The goal – to build a community of people who want to encourage each other.

Maybe there will be something you need to hear or maybe there is something you want to add to the comments. Like the page, share the link with everyone you know on Twitter, Facebook and email and let’s see what happens.

Week 1, Michelle Poteet, Reclaim Order – Overcoming Self-Doubt.

Week 2, Matthew Egan, Image Freedom – Overcoming Growth.

Week 3, Debi Pfitzenmaier, Pfitz PR – Overcoming Trolls.

Week 4, Kathy DeLeon and Gina Cruz, Learning Rx – Overcoming Fears.

Week 5, Barbara McNeely, Mariposa Naturals – Overcoming Speaking in Front of Others.

Week 6, Patricia Porter, Conflict Connections – Overcoming Branding/Marketing Self.

Week 7, Sharlyn Lauby, ITM Group – Overcoming Blogging.


Photo courtesy of Bob B. Brown via Flickr

Have you read John Maxwell’s book Thinking For A Change?

In it, Maxwell asks a provocative question: “Do you know what most people’s number one challenge is when it comes to making positive personal changes?”

Several answers came to mind:

1. A positive support system is missing.
2. Limited finances.
3. Lack of knowledge.

Here is Maxwell’s answer: “It’s their feelings. They want to change, but don’t know how to get past their emotions.”

Feelings? Really?

I thought about this from the perspective of small business owners. In the clients I coach, 1-3 come up regularly.

1. “My family doesn’t believe in me.”
2. “We’re broke.”
3. “I’m good at _____, but I don’t know how to run a business.”

Yet there are entrepreneurs who have all those things in place and are still not reaching their goals. Why aren’t they? Why aren’t you?

Maxwell proposes that the only way to make positive change is to change the way we think. He suggests that our actions/decisions come from our feelings and our feelings come from our thoughts. He believes that if we control our thoughts, we will control our feelings which will in turn, cause us to make good decisions.

Thoughts →Feelings→Actions.

Our Beliefs Determine Our Success

I agree with Maxwell and I’d like to take this idea a bit further. It is my humble opinion that every action we take, every decision we make stems from not just what we think, but what we believe about ourselves (internal beliefs) and what we believe about the world around us (external beliefs). This is an important distinction because at times, our core beliefs are different from what we logically know. And often, we are led more by our core beliefs than by the objective data we hold in our minds.  Our core beliefs are at the root of our behaviors.

Haven’t you seen this in yourself or others:

• I’m not as smart as _______. =  Declining invitations to work on projects.

• I’m not good at sales. = A low closing percentage.

• God doesn’t want me to be successful = Consciously or subconsciously, this person sabotages their own success.

• I must be perfect = Not taking risks.

• If an employee believes nothing he/she does will impact the company, this person becomes complacent.

Conversely,

• If you believe each “failure” brings you one step closer to success, you will keep trying.

• If you believe you are fully able to overcome challenges, no mountain will ever be too big to climb.

• If you believe in the greater purpose of what you do, you will have a well-spring of energy and enthusiasm.

Beliefs→Thoughts →Feelings→Actions→Success.

Our beliefs drive our thinking. Our thoughts impact our feelings. How we feel determines our actions. Our actions determine our success.

The First Step To Correcting Your Course

Assuming our success comes from our beliefs, it becomes even more important to evaluate our core beliefs – particularly those that are false and limiting. This is the first step to change our actions and increase our success.

If I may, that is my challenge for you this week: Identify the core beliefs that are holding you back.You may be able to name them immediately or you may need to dig a little bit. In either case, knowing what they are will bring you closer to changing them (which I’ll address in upcoming posts.)

What do you think? Or perhaps the better question is what do you believe?


Photo courtesy of Chris Runoff via Flickr

I’ve been thinking a lot about babies. My nephew’s wife is pregnant and so is one of my good friends. I’ve enjoyed seeing their bellies grow and studying sonogram pictures to figure out whose nose the baby has. We don’t have children so it’s fascinating to me.

Several years ago a dear friend of mine was pregnant (3rd trimester) with her first child, a sweet, precious girl named Hannah. I’ll never forget sitting with her one day, talking about her experience being pregnant. We talked about all the physiological changes she was going through, the weird cravings and the raging hormones. She surprised me when she said, “Alicia, I have a confession to make. I’m really scared about bringing this baby into the world. I almost don’t want her to be born because if she stays within me, I know she’ll be safe.”

I wonder if babies in the womb feel the same way. They are warm, sheltered, fed and have everything they need. They are safe.

Then they turn upside down, and through a tremendous amount of pressure and squeezing, they are pushed out into a world of chaos – bright lights, loud voices and cold air. Most don’t like it and proclaim their dismay loudly to everyone in the room.

My friends, we can often be like unborn babies. We stay in the safety zone of the things we know, the things with which we are most familiar. We close ourselves off to new ideas, paradigms and people.

About Change

There are two types of change: the change we initiate and the change that happens to us. Both can be difficult.

The Change We Initiate

Seth Godin, in his book Purple Cow, has something to say about the change we initiate. He says that innovation and creativity are essential business skills and entrepreneurs will fail without them. I happen to agree. The world is changing rapidly around us and that means we need to invest in innovation for our businesses. If we don’t, we will become irrelevant. And irrelevant is exactly what your competition wants you to be.

A great example of an innovative company is Crayola. From changing the names of their crayons to developing washable markers to most recently, creating 3-D sidewalk chalk, Crayola has embraced change which has helped them continue to stay relevant. In fact, they have a team of employees whose sole focus is innovation. In their Supplier’s Guide, Crayola says: “At Crayola we are committed to finding and developing new technologies that enable us to be on the leading edge of providing safe, innovative new products to satisfy our customers. To achieve these goals, we have a Future Innovation Team that focuses on the development of new technology to be transformed into products that fill the Crayola pipeline and fuel the overall growth of our creative offerings.” (Note: I searched for financial data to see if there was a correlation between their newest innovations and financial growth. Unfortunately, financial information is challenging to find as they are a privately owned company. However they earned a reported $675 million in 2008.)

On the other hand, I recently met a woman desperate to grow her business. However, she does not know how to use email. I don’t know why she did not keep up with technology over the years. But I know this, if she had initiated change to learn about computers, she would not have an technological Everest to face today. You see, she had the opportunity to initiate change by learning how to use a computer; but instead, the change has now happened to her.

It’s up to us to move ourselves out of the incubator and outside of our safety zones. And we don’t need Crayola’s millions to do it either. Some cost effective methods are:

• Taking classes
• Reading books
• Watching You Tube and other videos; one of my favorite sites is TED
• Surrounding ourselves with innovative and creative people
• Attending conferences
• Working with an accountability partner
• Joining a Mastermind group
• Reading blogs
• Surrounding ourselves with people who are smarter than we are

The Change That Happens To Us

There is the change that we initiate and then the change that happens to us, change that is out of our control.

Benjamin Franklin famously said: “Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes.” He’s missing something though. My revision is “Nothing is certain in life but death, taxes and change.”

Change is unavoidable. For a blessed few people, life will tenderly transition them into the unknown. But there are times that we reach newness of life only through the squeezing and painful pushing of circumstances out of our control. And when that happens, just like babies, you can scream about it and throw a tantrum. Be angry and mad. But then accept it and grow.

How do you get over your fears of change?

By the way, Trish McFarlane, at the HR Ringleader blog, wrote this fascinating post about the links between creativity, innovation and change.

Photo courtesy of titlap via Flickr.

This is a true story about “Amy” who just happens to be one of my heroes.

Amy has had a lot to overcome in her life. She was married to a soldier and as that vocation usually demands, they moved to a new state and city where she knew no one. Happily she became pregnant. When her husband returned from overseas, he informed her that he didn’t love her,  divorced her, moved back to her home town and left her stranded with a baby and not enough money to move herself back to family.

Amy found daycare and got a job in payroll.

She did not make payroll mistakes. If there was an error in the payroll, it never came from her batch of work. Never. And she defended her perfect record as fiercely as a mama bear defending her cubs. You see, Amy understood that she was protecting more than her reputation – she was protecting her ability to care for her child.

Amy was slowly promoted and finally (deservingly) became the manager over payroll. Her mission stayed the same – run payroll with as few mistakes as possible. And she did. When 1,200 annual increases came in late and she had less than 2 days to get them entered, her team did it.

Amy had just gotten through one of those rough patches of last-minute payroll changes when she came into my office. We talked about the stress of what she was doing and then “it“ happened. She told me something that no one else knew and it changed me. She swore me to secrecy and I have never repeated it, until today.

Amy said, “Alicia, do you know why this is so hard on me?”

I replied, “Amy, I think anyone would understand what you’re dealing with right now.”

The look on her face clearly indicated that I didnt’ have a clue. She shook her head and with a deep breath said, “Alicia, I am dyslexic.”

Imagine with me for a moment, being a young, abandoned mother desperate for work with a severe learning issue. The only job you are offered is to work in a department which requires continuous precision and accuracy. And you take it. You struggled through high school because your mind switched numbers, letters and words; the only diagnosis that existed then was “stupid.” But you still take the job. And you work long hours, hours off the clock, hours at home, to double and triple check your work to make sure there are no mistakes. And you do this day after day, for years.

The Amy Challenge

As business owners, it’s easy to get stuck in all the reasons why something can’t be done.

• I don’t have enough time.

• I’m wearing too many hats.

• The economy is bad.

• I’m under-funded.

• I’m not educated.

• My spouse doesn’t support me.

• There is too much competition.

There are times that we are barely able to survive the sea-sickness of the natural ups and downs of business. We’re doing good to stay afloat, much less get ourselves unstuck. But get unstuck you must! Or your business will succumb to the fate of Davey Jone’s locker.

The “experts” told Amy she would never find a job that paid well because her learning disability was too limiting. But she knew what was most important in her life and she pushed herself to make it happen. There was no obstacle bigger than her determination to care for her child.

May I challenge you to be like Amy? Decide what is most important to you and allow that to fuel your determination to tear through the challenges in front of you.

What is your important thing?

Photo courtesy of  orphanjones via Flickr.

She sat across the conference room table from me wiping the tears from her face.

Her tears were streaming unabated because of news she received three weeks ago: after 35 years, her company did not need her anymore. Today is her last day.

The company thoughtfully wanted to support her in her job search and that is why I am here, looking into a face full of great sadness and fear.

In going through her hastily created resume, the source of her fear revealed itself. While she knew in-detail how her company’s antiquated systems worked, her skills would be viewed as mediocre to the outside world.

• She was raised a farm girl and still lives on a farm in an economically depressed town an hour away from the city.

• She is quite proud of her high school diploma.

• Her husband, not understanding the value a computer could bring, forbade her to purchase one.

• She knows Word Perfect and Lotus quite well; but the new Word program is confusing to her. “All the buttons at the top have changed.”

• She bought a newspaper, looked at the classifieds, but could not find a job for which she was qualified. She has not heard of Monster or Career Builder; a lot has changed in 35 years.

She has assets too. The ability to balance a company’s accounts to the penny told me she has patience, determination and attention to detail. And of course, she is loyal to her employer; a competency undervalued by many organizations.

This should not have happened.

Some of you would say it’s the small business’ fault for not investing in developing her skills. Some of you would say it’s her fault for not being proactive enough about her career. I don’t care whose fault it is! Pointing blame won’t fix her lack of income and limited job options.

We are human beings, made to support our brothers and sisters. We have a responsibility to help others in need. We can’t “fix” other people, but we can assist  them. We can point them in the right direction. We can listen to their concerns. We can pay for continuing education for someone less fortunate than us.  Don’t wait for the company to do something about it. Don’t wait for the government to pay unemployment. Don’t wait for this person to have a sudden epiphany that to protect herself and her future, she needs to learn new things. Do something!

There is someone just like her in your circle of influence. Someone kind, eager to learn, who does not have access to skills development or doesn’t even know where to start. She might be in your office, one of your neighbors, someone at church or a friend of a friend. Who is it in your life?

What will you do?

Photo courtesy of Pennajoe123

Have you enjoyed March Marketing Madness as much as I have? Well it’s not over yet. I have the great pleasure of introducing you to Todd Schnick. Todd is Chief of The Intrepid Group, a marketing firm out of Atlanta, Georgia. Todd specializes small to medium-sized companies (one of the reasons I wanted him to guest post) with a focus on integrating social media into their daily business lives and incorporating bold designs online and in marketing collateral. Besides all that, Todd is a friend. We met on Twitter last year through a mutual friend and have been tweeting ever since.

Here’s Todd’s post:

UNCLUTTER YOUR MARKETING

I have been doing a lot of reading about minimalism recently. I need to simplify my life. I need to shed all the clutter that is distracting me from the things I value the most. And in my research, I have learned a lot.

And as is typical, the ideas I uncover are hardly rocket science. In fact, they are quite simple. They just require the will and the discipline to execute on them.

As I have been going through this process, I have done a lot of thinking about applying minimalist principles to our marketing. And whenever I speak to folks about this, they get confused about where I am coming from, thinking I mean to stop their marketing altogether. Or to dramatically cut back on their marketing budget.

Hardly.

What I really mean is to “unclutter” your marketing. What do I mean by this? Simple:

1. Simplify your message.

2. Simplify your efforts.

3. Increase focus on the fewer things that matter.

4. And yes, you can reduce your marketing costs.

1. Simplify Your Message

When we talk about our business, most of us talk about too many things. We create messaging to talk to a broad range of potential clients. In other words, we cast too large a net. As a result, we catch nothing.

The goal? Determine the one, simple message that yields the most customers and/or return customers, and focus only on that.

2. Simplify Your Efforts

A lot of the small business people I know have too many things going on with their marketing. They are employing too many tactics. They have signed up for every conceivable online tool they can get their hands on.

As a result, they execute on NONE of them very well. And they waste time, money, and effort. Now, I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t try and test new things. But be discerning when you commit to trying something new. Plan it, think about it, and prepare yourself to get the most out of the experiment.

Too often, most entrepreneurs have TOO many things going on, and they have ZERO idea if this particular tactical option is even yielding a positive return.

Focus only on the things that work, that drive real profits.

3. Increase Focus on Things That Matter

Someone recently said that wannabe golfers don’t want to spend time on the driving range, so they just invest in expensive equipment at the pro shop. I love this, because it speaks to my very point.

For example, many small business people think that just buying the “best on market” CRM solution will magically turn around their prospecting.

Not so. As always, it depends on what you do with it. Using the previous example, you will only achieve what you want by “spending time on the driving range.” You simply have to remove all the time-consuming distractions, and focus only on the things that matter and drive profits.

You may have five different tactical options you are implementing in your marketing, such as time on the social web, face-to-face networking, local cable television advertisements, direct response mail, and Google Adwords.

Do you know which ones (if any) are actually leading to profitable customers? If only two of those options are producing, cut the other three, and focus on making the two that do generate profits work even better, or deepen the investment in those two.

4. Reduce Your Costs Too!

The biggest challenge I face with my clients is convincing them to spend money on their marketing. You have to spend money to make money.

But I have witnessed too many small business people who spend money frivolously on too many little things. They are bombarded with sales pitches from this company and that one, and they spend money trying them out with little to no regard for how any of these things integrate into their broad program.

(They are buying equipment in the pro shop, NOT practicing on the driving range…)

Simply removing all this tactical clutter can save you money. The time saved from fiddling with these can free you up to focus on things that matter, which will result in higher profits.

BE CLUTTER FREE!

At the end of the day, removing the clutter from your marketing program will save you time, frustration, stress, money – and FREE you up to focus on the core mission of your marketing – which is delivering a simple, clear message to your core market.

This results in focusing on what you do best to serve that market. In the end, you will see an increase in your profits – and you will enjoy your business more. And isn’t that what this is all about?

Todd, that is a message I needed to hear. Thank you.

I confess that I struggle with making things too complicated at times. Over time (and through learning some lessons the hard way) I am at a point in my business where I truly value simplicity. Do you? Don’t forget, if you would like to ask Todd specific questions regarding marketing, feel free to leave him a question in the comments section.