Kendall SummerHawk is a Professional Certified Coach, and “an expert in business coaching, branding, and marketing for self-employment success.”

She emphasizes how important it is to connect our core values and authentic personality with any marketing approaches, particularly for such a personal business as coaching.

“Each of us has a bigger ‘WHY’ that motivates us to do what we do,” she notes. “But when you speak or write about client results, do you tie in those results to your bigger why? If not, you’re missing out on helping your listener or reader link practical results with an authentic, compelling emotion.

“For example, my bigger ‘why’ is because I want people to love who they are and what they do. That’s my Soul’s Divine Purpose™. I link that to the marketing message of ‘putting more money in your purse.’”

From her article Tips To Authentically Market With Soul.    [Includes video.]

In another article, she asks, “What part of your personality do you most often try to hide?

“Quirky sense of humor? Maybe your love of risky sports like hang-gliding over mountain peaks, or you’re known for being bold and ahead of the pack. Or perhaps you secretly channel spirit guides but fear your corporate clients finding out.

“Whatever personality trait you possess that got you in trouble when you were a kid in school is probably precisely the one that needs to show up as a key branding component in your marketing.”

From What Is Your Archetype’s Marketing Personality?

>> Get her programs for Consultants, Speakers, Coaches, and Small Business Owners, including the CD series “How to Charge What You’re Worth and Get It!” at kendallsummerhawk.com.

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In this video, Laura West of the Center for Joyful Business “shares with solo entrpreneurs and small business owners one of her marketing and mindset success strategies to shift your energy to support your business.”

In her article 7 Money Mindset Shifts, she describes more ideas to support peak personal performance in business, including the concept of the “Money Mindset Shift #1 - Everything is a Spiritual Exchange” :

“This can be a huge powerful shift for you and your business,” she writes. “I know as a joyful business owner you already have a business based on your core values of what’s important to you. This takes this belief and resulting action to a deeper place.

“Look at everything as a spiritual exchange of energy. In this article, there is energy coming through the words and my intention, and the energy with which it was written.

“This is true for you everywhere…with each client communication, each business card you receive, each teleclass or keynote program you give - you are giving out energy and it is being received whether the recipient is aware of the energy exchange consciously or just underneath.

In another of her articles, Systems = Freedom!, she explains how “Creating Systems Gives You Valuable Creative Time.”

“One of the most common complaints I hear from clients is they don’t have enough time to write the article, the book or the create their new information product.

“When you create systems for those things you do over and over again, you free up time which you can use for getting those creative projects done.”

She adds, “You want to be doing work that keeps your energy flowing!”

She also details how Systems Give You More Time for “Focus and Flow” : “As a busy mom-preneur who does most of my work from the bus pickup time to the bus dropoff time… this morning time is invaluable to me in helping me get so much done in a few short hours.”

Laura Howard West is a certified professional coach, writer, speaker and the President and Chief Creative Officer of The Center for Joyful Business.

She is the creator of The Joyful Business Guide.

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Pamela Slim is a coach and author of Escape from Cubicle Nation.

In her Guest post The Excuses People Use To Stay at a Job she talks about some of the inner, emotional aspects of following our entrepreneurial urges:

“Trying to wait until you have enough courage to start your business is fighting the way your brain is wired. One of the deepest layers of the human brain is a neural structure that evolved in early vertebrates.

“It is wrapped around the cortex of your brain and blasts signals on a regular basis intended to keep you fed and out of danger.

“This ‘lizard brain’ will scream at you all day when you are considering doing something new like starting a business :

* “You don’t have enough experience for anyone to take you seriously as a consultant!”

* “If you leave your stable job to go out on your own, you will live in a van down by the river!”

* “You have no idea what you are doing and when you show your ideas in public for the first time, people will mock and criticize you!”

“Instead of trying to suppress these lizard fears, learn from them.”

Excerpted from post Top excuses and tactics: Why haven’t you started your own business? on the blog of Ramit Sethi - also the title of his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

Pamela Slim (Twitter @pamslim) is author of Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Foreword by Guy Kawasaki.

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To sign up, visit alexandriabrown.com

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In his post Can You Go Renegade In Midst Of Crisis?, Jonathan Fields writes about pursuing an entrepreneurial life in difficult times.

“If you’re in the midst of crisis and your immediate need is to put food on the table and pay your rent or mortgage, that will pretty much always take priority over any other pursuit, passion included.

“It’s straight out of Maszlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Everything goes on the back burner, unless and until the fundamental need for survival is comfortably taken care of.

“So, the question is, can you do that and go renegade at the same time? And, the answer is, for a lot of people…yes. If you’ve been laid off, the one thing you’ve got on your hands is time. Those 8-12 hours you used to spend working are now there to be repurposed.”

Fields is author of Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love

The video is from post Get Out Of Your Head And Into The Game on Fields’ blog Awake at the Wheel.

Also hear Fields’ Career Renegade podcast at SXSW.

Also see diagram of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs.

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Video with Ali Brown about her training program - the 2009 Online Success Blueprint® System

Now a millionaire entrepreneur with multiple businesses, Ali Brown is consistently generating a 7-figure income by using email, the Internet, and information products.

She admits, “I wasn’t always entrepreneurial, and in fact, about 10 years ago I was still working in a JOB, in New York City. After years of unhappily hopping from job to job, thinking the problem was me, I finally realized that maybe I was meant to work on my own.

“I didn’t know how to get started, but I just couldn’t stay employed any longer. I was so frustrated working for others that I jumped ship and “hung my shingle” – announcing I was in business for myself.

“Within just that first year, I was already burnt out from working 100+ hours a week.

“All my time was spent trying to find clients, and then the rest of my time was spent jumping to keep them, and then I was also running my business… and I still wasn’t making ends meet.

“I had quit my job to gain “freedom,” but now I found I was a slave all over again. But instead of being a slave to my boss, I was now a slave to my clients and my business. I struggled to market myself, and had no time or freedom.

“I’d wanted to experience the joy of owning my own business, but now my business owned ME. And it was beating me up.

“The income was really UP and DOWN – as much as I tried to predict it, clients were unpredictable. One month I’d get a bunch of checks, and I’d pay down my bills, and have hope that things would get better. The next month I was in the hole once more, charging groceries to my credit card, clipping coupons, eating $2 frozen dinners, losing sleep, and wondering if I was really cut out to own my own business.

“And, I wasn’t only broke – I was in TONS of debt. The last straw was the day I couldn’t even take out $20 from an ATM in my neighborhood, because my balance had gotten so low while waiting for a client to pay.

Finding a better way to be in business for yourself

“I remember walking back to my apartment, trying to hide my tears from passersby, thinking, Something has to change. I’m doing all the things you’re supposed to do with a business, including working really hard. But this is TOO HARD… there has to be a better way.

“And thank goodness it was soon after I came to discover the new business model that would transform my business (and life) forever…”

~~~~~

“Your Online Success Blueprint was THE key that allowed me to expand beyond the boundaries of my one-on-one life coaching and counseling practice. By implementing 2 tools you so generously gave away in your FREE teleseminars, I generated an extra $3,000.00 in 1 month.

“So, of course I had to attend the OSBW. By implementing 2 more tips, I generated $15,000.00 in six weeks and my monthly opt-in rate has increased by 400%. I finally have the tools to create the lifestyle I want – more time, more money, and less work. Ali, thanks for being such a great teacher and role model!”

—Sonia M. Miller, BBA, MSW, Founder, Success for the Soul, Dallas, Oregon www.successforthesoul.com

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There are many challenges to being an entrepreneur, both internal and external. You may be enthused and passionate about a venture, but still feel discouraged, deflated and despairing at times. What can you do about it?

Online entrepreneur Yaro Starak has created, managed and sold a number of different Internet businesses. His main blog Entrepreneur’s Journey is making him and his team more than $10,000 per month, and attracting over 5,000 daily readers.

In his post How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up he says, “I know a lot of people look to my story of success as a source of inspiration and that is one of the greatest benefits I enjoy as a blogger, but - and I’m not afraid to admit it - I don’t always feel energized to pursue business and sometimes in my darkest moments, I even consider throwing in the towel.”

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