The Real Secrets To Success

"It's what you learn when you think you know everything that counts the most in life."
Basketball Coach John Wooden

What's the "secret" behind successful business owners? It's simple - they have a coach. We all have blind spots, particularly when it comes to our business. Have you noticed how easy it is to give advice, but when it comes to your life, you can't see the whole picture? Emotions can get in the way of making clear decisions.

Who do you turn to when you need answers?

Do you operate your business from the highest level of thinking and action?
Do you feel you are doing all you can, yet it just isn't enough?
The old model of learning from your mistakes is not practical. It's too expensive and time-consuming. A single mistake can ruin you in today's fast-paced business environment. A coach is an inexpensive insurance policy. Coaching is a profession that has synthesized the best from psychology, business, communication, mentoring, consulting, sports, philosophy, spirituality, sports, and finance. A coach challenges you and provides the necessary tools, structure, and support. A coach draws the answers out of you and bridges the gap between where you are and where you want to go.

Why do entrepreneurs turn to coaches?

To get an objective viewpoint from someone who has no hidden agenda.
To have a consistent structure, support, and accountability.
Maximize and leverage every action, investment, and opportunity in your life while minimizing your effort and risks.
When a business owner hires a coach, it demonstrates the strength and a willingness to take responsibility to grow themselves and their business. Just talking about your thoughts, emotions, and ideas can generate solutions. Many business owners who continually churn their businesses in their minds drain themselves of the energy required to run their business with clarity. Bouncing your concerns and ideas with a coach who sees things outside the box you operate from can provide apparent solutions.

What is a coach?

Coaching is a profession that has synthesized the best from psychology, business, communication, mentoring, consulting, sports, philosophy, spirituality, sports, and finance. A coach challenges you and provides the necessary tools, structure, and support. A coach draws the answers out of you and bridges the gap between where you are and where you want to go. A coach is like having a personal trainer for your life and business.

The Seven Secrets To Effortless Success!

1. Identity Your Recipe For Success.

What's the real difference between success and failure? Some may argue that it has a great attitude, money, luck, or perseverance. The real difference is only one thing - The ability to be consistent. You can have a great attitude or industry, but if you only have it one or two days a week, your life will look like a roller coaster. True success is something you create consistently. What's your recipe for success? Identify the specifics of your successful days: What are you thinking? How do you walk? How are you breathing? What kind of people is around you? Are you taking care of your body? Did you work out today? What types of food are you putting into your body to fuel you? All of these components begin the process of
identifying your unique recipe for success. Once you have placed it, duplicate it consistently to maintain an upward movement of quantifiable results.

2. Eliminate The Hassles Of Life.

Suffering is optional! Stop suffering, tolerate, and hope. Our culture has a massive addiction among entrepreneurs that are rarely recognized. It's the addiction to adrenaline. Adrenaline is a source of energy. It's not the healthiest energy source, yet people will do anything to get it. Adrenaline is a habit that creates an unhealthy lifestyle. Here are some symptoms of adrenaline:

I was rushing around and juggling as many projects as possible.
You are speeding in your car.
We are always looking at the clock.
You are filling up your gas tank on empty.
Coffee
Sugar
Messy desk with piles everywhere.
I was never saying "no" to projects.
Over promising your results.
Adrenaline addiction runs rampant among entrepreneurs because the common belief holds that adrenaline equals success. Gordon Bahary, president of Electric Kingdom Records, used to run his life on adrenaline. "I used to create situations that developed adrenaline. I would drink coffee, eat sugar, and get hyped, angry, and excited more than was necessary. I erratically planned my execution of tasks to get the adrenaline rush. I depended on something external pushing me and used adrenaline to get through my day. Now I'm clear about my real talents and draw natural energy from within. I have time to stop and think and gained a love for my discipline of not running on adrenaline."

The paradox of attraction is - if you want to achieve more, do less. It's called irresistible attraction. By eliminating adrenaline, you naturally attract success, reduce stress, integrate all aspects of your life, simplify, and reorient around what makes you the happiest. What good is increased productivity and profitability if you're not satisfied?

3. Get Your Needs Met And Communicate More Effectively.

It's essential to be clear about what you need and to communicate it elegantly. Needs are not optional. It's what you don't know about yourself that runs you. Unmet needs can run your life until you identify them and take complete responsibility for fulfilling them in healthy ways. Have the language you need to handle confrontations. When people avoid conflicts, their lives get messy. When you have the skills to communicate effectively, you have quality relationships and restore your integrity. Learn how to come across better, listen, influence, coach, motivate, inspire and support others.

4. Create Reserves.

Business owners tend to run their businesses on edge. They get so caught up with their ideas that they invest everything into their ventures and want to make it happen all now! Business owners tend to exhaust their reserves quicker and faster than any other group of people because they are creative and come up with many ideas that require attention. The solution is to create accounts in every area. You want to have more than enough to operate from reserves continuously. When you work close to empty, you react to every situation in life. With resources, you respond to life. When you respond, you're constantly a choice.

How do you build reserves? Begin by creating new standards of doubling everything, i.e., time, money, opportunities, clients, friends, energy, etc. Fill your gas tank when it's on half a tank instead of waiting until it's empty. Buy two boxes of fax paper versus one. Hold money in separate reserve accounts for new projects. Say "no" more. Stop over-promising and begin to underpromise. Operating with reserves makes you more attractive. People will gravitate to you and seek you out to do business. With accounts comes fewer errors, space to create the future, time to complete work, and the ability to maintain integrity.

5. Work "On" Your Business Instead Of "In" It.

Insightful business owners are wise not to work "IN" their business but know that real money and success come from working "ON" their business. When you work "IN" your business, you think like an employee, do tasks that you can do that others should be doing, and work hard. When you work "ON" your business, you orchestrate the work of others; you step back daily to get a helicopter view of where you're heading and plan your business for long-term growth.

New business owners can quickly get engrossed and consumed with their business. While it's essential to understand how to run and operate your business, it is equally important to stop and set up structures and systems so that anyone can do the job the same way. You're probably worth more than your making. Why charge what you think you are worth? Charge what others are charging. What other products and services can you market to your existing clients? Stop chasing, selling, and promoting your business and begin to attract effortlessly. The key here is to have an extremely profitable business—question all your expenses. Leverage your ability to improve the financial bottom line, make money, add more value to your customers, and increase productivity. The key is to have cash instead of money having you. Remember the mission and forget the commission.

6. Get Rid Of All The Stuff In The Way

Eliminate the distractions of problems, incompletions, and tolerations and increase productivity. Everything you tolerate claims a piece of your creative and physical energy. Tolerations drain you of the resources required for a successful business. " Getting rid of my tolerations was the most freeing thing I've ever done. I never realized how much energy was being drained from tolerations. Every day I walked in and got annoyed at my messy desk. Now my desk is organized, I have more energy to use on more important things, like growing my business." Says Mike Schneider, president of Ki Sales.

What are incompletes and tolerations? The piles in your office, projects you plan to start, unfilled tax receipts or forms, unread magazines, legal matters, the dent on your car, conversations you need to have, etc. Set a plan to resolve tolerations and structure a way to eliminate them permanently. How? Identify and eliminate the cause of your tolerations, so they don't occur again. "I constantly look for ways to make my life easier. When issues arise, I don't just look to resolve them; I look for solutions, so the problems never resurface." Says Pete Fioretti, president of Mountain Funding.

7. Discover Your Strengths and Orient Your Business Around Them.

What are your strengths? Unfortunately, we learn as children to get good at the things we are not good at. For instance, if you had a natural talent in art and failed in math, your parents would hire a math tutor instead of an art teacher to embellish your innate strengths. When you spend your life trying to get good at things that don't come naturally to you, mediocrity is, at best, what you can expect. The secret key to effortless success is identifying your strengths and talents and doing only those things.

Jan Guarino, president of Guarino Graphics, struggled with her growing business. She spent her time wearing every hat in her company. By the end of the month, profits were not growing. She finally stopped doing what she didn't enjoy. She delegated the administration and took control of graphic design and sales, and her company profits more than doubled.

If you are unsure what your gifts are, it may not be easy to discover them yourself. How do you find out your strengths? Ask five people that know you well what they believe your gifts are. In that dialogue with them, you'll discover it.

Are You A Coaching Candidate?
1. Do you spend your day putting out fires?
2. Are you concerned about your business running at maximum profitability?
3. Do you run your business on edge?
4. Do the same problems continually resurface?
5. Do you have difficulty finding someone you trust who can give you an objective viewpoint and bounce ideas off?
6. Is your business running for you?
7. Do you find that you cannot make the most of all the opportunities in your life?
8. Do you experience roller coaster highs and lows in your business?
9. Do you have a lone ranger lifestyle?
10. Do you allow your goals and purpose to get sidetracked?
11. Do you lack a clear, measurable action plan to fulfill your goals?
12. Do you lack structure?
13. Do you lack inner fulfillment?
14. Do you spend most of your day working "in" your business instead of "on" it?
15. Are you a workaholic?
16. Are you experiencing a lack of balance in your life and business?
17. Are you committed to growing yourself and your company?
18. Are you coachable? (Are you willing to hear and act on another person's viewpoint?)
19. Do you lack a clear financial plan for your future?
20. Are you willing to be truthful and restore your integrity?