Laura West of the Center for Joyful Business writes about some of the inner ‘gremlins’ that may compromise achievement for entrepreneurs:

It happens to all of us small business owners. Things are hopping along in our businesses: we are growing our lists, increasing our visibility and attracting new clients, and then suddenly… BAM!

The gremlin inside you starts whispering sweet nothings, accompanied by a dull ache in your stomach or a tightening of your throat.

“You’re not really doing it right.” “What you’re doing isn’t enough…it’s not good enough, big enough, powerful enough or thorough enough.”

“What are you thinking? Do you really know what you are doing?” and the “See what she’s doing…you’re just not doing it right/fast enough/making enough money”….

What starts out as a quiet question suddenly moves to a slow simmer, and then if not kept in check, it’ll rise to a full boil! The voice impacts our sleep, our creativity, our confidence, our ability to think clearly, and our willingness to take action.

Continued in article Practical Strategies for Shifting the “I’m Not Enough” Gremlin.

characteristics of entrepreneurs, psychology of entrepreneurs, personal qualities for business success

Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D., “Creator and host of everything smARTist” says:

“Gifted by life and hard work, artists illuminate our world. But if this work is not in the world and of the world, the candle sputters and dies.

“Learning to nourish and shelter the ‘offering’ that is your art with knowledge and action, keeps the artist and the art shining for us all.”

Video: a testimonial from Amadea Bailey, 2007, 2009 & 2010 attendee, of how the smARTist Telesummit has impacted her art and art career.

The home-study program

Here are just some of the professional development topics that are covered :

* How to decide if your work is ready for a new gallery…or any gallery.
* Why Artists have a special advantage in adverse economic times.
* How Twitter can get you more exposure and net you new collectors.
* When diversifying your portfolio and your pricing strategy increase your art income.
* How you can build a consistent business strategy that’s in line with your dreams and values.
* When narrowing your market options increases your chances for success.
* The hidden gift in the clutter around you that could actually increase your productivity.
* The best ways to deal with disappointments, so they don’t sabotage your creative energy.

In this audio clip, Ariane Goodwin reads a question from a seminar participant about goals for artists, with responses by painter & collage artist Jonathan Talbot.

Visit the smARTist Telesummit site for more about the Art Career Conference Home-Study Edition – which includes audio downloads and CDs (plus written transcripts) for the 7 day conference, with 11 Keynote Speakers, who gave 14 presentations.

> “When you purchase before April 15th, you’ll receive the Stay-On-Track program as a special bonus! This is a companion Companion Guide and Workbook Program to help you easily organize all the material Before, During, and After listening to the Telesummit.”

products for entrepreneurs, artist entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products

Beginning Thursday, April 15, 2010

Materials include Audio Recordings of the Series; Transcripts of Each Call; Downloadable Forms and Checklists, and more.

Presented by Kendall SummerHawk, Million Dollar Marketing Coach and creator of a two million dollar home based coaching business

- and Richard Shapiro, Kendall’s award winning business partner, husband & co-owner of seven figure businesses.

From the site:

Dear Entrepreneurial Women,

Are you …

* someone who knows people need your service, product or program but struggle with filling your courses, teleseminars or workshops?

* tired of seeing that “glazed” look on peoples’ faces when you try to explain what you do?

* afraid that if you specialize you’ll offend someone or ignore people you know you can help?

* committed to growing your business but not if it means more work?

* beginning to realize that the future of your business is undeniably limited unless you can quickly and easily attract more ideal clients into your programs, courses and workshops, plus sell more of your products?

Not to worry…you’re in the right place!

I know how frustrating it is to want to help people, only to have them ignore your offers or worse, glaze over when you try to share how you can help them. I know how scary it can be to even think about launching a new service, program or product when the last time you tried, so few people (if any) said “Yes.”

Talk about embarrassing!

Ladies, here’s the problem: I bet that every time you hear that you are “supposed to pick a niche” you cringe inside.

The thing is, it’s a woman’s nature to help as many people as she can. Asking a woman entrepreneur to pick a “target market” is a strictly masculine approach that just doesn’t work for how a women thinks or feels. We need a different approach to solve the problem of how to attract a flood of ideal clients and referrals.

I’m Kendall SummerHawk and when I first started my business I thought my ideal client was anyone who could fog a mirror and whose check would clear (and sometimes, even THAT didn’t happen!). I was so grateful to get ANY clients that I gave little thought to specializing.

It wasn’t until I struggled for over a year and faced the real possibility of needing to get a j-o-b that I finally decided WHO I wanted to attract as my ideal clients. What I discovered was SHOCKING…contrary to what I had previously thought, the more I specialized, the more money I began to make.

Sign up for the program at

Niche Breakthrough Secrets telecourse

products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products

“Just as surely as building a powerful brand is the key to differentiating a product in the marketplace and thus building a successful business, so creating a strong personal brand is the key to differentiating yourself from your competitors, thereby ensuring your own success as well as that of your business.

“Your personal brand determines how people respond to you, whether they listen to you, buy from you, how much they buy, what they are willing to pay, and so on.”

From article Create Your Personal Brand, By Brian Tracy

changing career, finding new vocation, products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products, characteristics of entrepreneurs, psychology of entrepreneurs

Jonathan Mead and Steve Pavlina write about the kinds of attitudes, mindsets and self-limiting beliefs toward work – and our abilities – that may keep us from even attempting an entrepreneurial dream.

Mead writes:

“So many people don’t do what they love for a living, because they think they don’t deserve it. It’s more important for them to sacrifice and deliver value to others, than it is to value themselves.

“That’s the typical puritanical mindset. Work for others’ benefit, get a paycheck (to make it seem like you really got something out of it), then suck it up. This is how this paradigm works:

“Work to deliver someone else value, while doing something that we don’t enjoy (self-sacrifice).

“Get a paycheck, and then trick ourselves into believing that the paycheck is enough to make up for the fact that we don’t care much for what we do.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be this way anymore. You don’t have to sacrifice your self. And the good news is, when you actually care about the value you deliver, you can deliver more of it and do it better.”

Jonathan Mead – in his post The End of Self-Sacrifice on his blog Illuminated Mind.

He is author of the free ebook: The Zero Hour Workweek – available on his site. He notes, “The ‘zero’ part is in reference to when you do what you love, ‘work’ no longer feels like work. I personally can no longer tell the difference between when I’m working and when I’m playing.”

Steve Pavlina notes: “One of the greatest fears you’ll confront is that you may not have any real value to offer others. Maybe being an employee and getting paid by the hour is the best you can do. Maybe you just aren’t worth that much.

“That line of thinking is all just part of your conditioning. It’s absolute nonsense. As you begin to dump such brainwashing, you’ll soon recognize that you have the ability to provide enormous value to others and that people will gladly pay you for it.

“There’s only one thing that prevents you from seeing this truth — fear.”

From his post 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.

He is author of the book Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth.

Related post: Steve Pavlina on self-limiting beliefs and benefiting from The Lefkoe Method.

recognizing self-limiting beliefs, recognizing self-limiting habits, dealing with self-limiting beliefs, overcoming self limiting beliefs

Recently, Valerie Young, Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com joined Yanik Silver and Maverick Business Adventures on an extreme business trip complete with cliff hanging, rock climbing and white water rafting.

Maverick Business Adventures is an exclusive club for successful entrepreneurs. They organize networking adventures where members go on some amazing adventures while sharing their vast accumulated knowledge and resources with each other, but also give back to their community by helping potentially at risk kids become successful too.

An added bonus of being part of the Maverick group is the opportunity to talk and learn from fellow entrepreneurs. On a recent trip to Aspen, Valerie Young took this opportunity to ask some of these extremely successful individuals to offer their advice for changing course.

You’ll hear first hand from successful entreprenuers like like Terry Wygal from FireYourBossIn90DaysOrLess.com, Katheryn Tully who founded FinancialTimes.com, Tim Warren of AdventureBizSuccess.com and TravelBusinessSuccess.com, Carrie Wilkerson of Barefoot-Executive.com, and many more share their best nuggets of advice with you.

Go to Changing Course to get your free report on how you can make a career change that lets you work from home or wherever you like.

Also see articles by Valerie Young.

developing multiple talents, changing career, finding new vocation, career change options

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.

products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products, marketing for entrepreneurs

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.

business self improvement, peak personal performance, products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products, psychology of entrepreneurs

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.

changing career, finding new vocation, products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products, characteristics of entrepreneurs, psychology of entrepreneurs

To sign up, visit alexandriabrown.com

products for entrepreneurs, career development products, business self improvement

..

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.

changing career, finding new vocation, products for entrepreneurs, career development products

changing career, finding new vocation, products for entrepreneurs, career development products, small business products

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

products for entrepreneurs, career development products, characteristics of entrepreneurs, psychology of entrepreneurs

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.”

He goes on to note, “This feeling is not so common for me now as I have lifestyle flexibility, a more stable income and a better mindset about work, but earlier on, it definitely was a problem.

“I expect you have felt similar feelings of despair or a lack of motivation at different stages of your business development, especially if you are yet to establish an income stream online that is sufficient for you to live off, or if you are right at the beginning and you have not seen one cent of return for the work you have put in.

Inspired or Dejected

“Depending on your world view and personality style, when you hear of the success of others you may either feel inspired or dejected, and while it’s obviously more fruitful to look at other people achieving what you desire as motivation, as a fallible human, jealousy, depression and anger may be your initial responses.

“Your mind is your greatest asset for success in business, but it can be just as strong a force of hindrance, sabotaging your efforts, destroying your work ethic and leaving you with no option but to return to the soul destroying job you promised yourself that you would never go back to.”

Getting help and inspiration

I recently joined his Become A Blogger premium program, which has been very helpful and encouraging. Yaro and his business partner provide business strategies – and perspectives on mindset – that have helped them and others be so successful, plus details on enhancing WordPress blogs, and marketing strategies.

Program participants include many bloggers and entrepreneurs who talk about real marketing issues and successes — all of which is encouraging someone like me who is still working on making my blogs a business I can live on.

He also provides excellent information in his free Blog Profits Blueprint, and more advanced training in the Blog Mastermind System.

Learn from negative feelings

“Despair asks us to grieve our losses, to examine and transform the meaning of our lives, to repair our broken souls. Each of these emotions is purposeful and useful – if we know how to listen to them.” Miriam Greenspan, author of Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Other Side of Grief, Fear, and Despair.

If you are gifted or especially sensitive, you may experience despair and other feelings more easily and intensely. You might “catastrophize” more, and tend to over-interpret or over-analyze the meanings of business setbacks or lack of growth or what you are doing with your talents.

Clive Hazell, PhD, author of The Experience of Emptiness, speaks of a related existential despair: our experience of emotional trauma and the feeling of remorse that the trauma contributed to a “life unlived” – a feeling of existential guilt: “I have committed the crime of not living, and I shall never live.”

Maybe it’s anxiety

Other experiences such as anxiety can be associated with despair. In my article Fear and creativity is a quote from Eric Maisel , PhD: “… only a small percentage of creative people work as often or as deeply as, by all rights, they might be expected to work. What stops them? Anxiety or some face of anxiety like doubt, worry, or fear. Anxiety is the great silencer of the creative person.”

And in his article In Praise of Positive Obsessions, Dr. Maisel talks about an antidote: “Positive obsessions.. are the fruit of a creator’s efforts to make meaning. Without positive obsessions, life is dull, dreary, and meaningless.” [From my post Existential Depression.]

If anxiety is a real issue in your life, you may have a hard time accessing the emotional resources you need to fully develop your business. I know that has been a problem for me. I sometimes feel too drained to put in the effort I want to.

Getting help

To get help for all this, there are a number of self-help, natural anxiety relief programs on the Anxiety Relief Solutions site.

Another approach is Holosync audio CD programs [yes, I am an affiliate], which promise to support positive changes in your mental/emotional health and ability to handle stress, and to help release dysfunctional feelings and behaviors.

Here are a couple of many testimonials:

“I noticed effects from the first day. I experienced a greater sense of confidence, well being. I experienced a sense of euphoria and also a sense that finally I found something that is making changes to me and is living up to the promises it made..” — Imran Hassan

Author Jack Canfield [The Success Principles etc] says “I have been using Holosync for years now and my meditations have gotten much deeper, I travel with the CD’s, I listen to them on a daily basis. And as a result I have more freedom of expression, a greater sense of relaxation and being stress free, and a greater sense of personal power…”

You can help keep despair and defeat feelings under control by reading articles on success, achievement and personal development in the  sections Achievement / Vocation, and Entrepreneurs.

Also, see programs by Jim Rohn, James Ray, Ali Brown and Valerie Young.