Tag Archives for " entrepreneur mindset "

8 Build Your Dream Team

Once you have identified your passion and decided on the business you want to build, it is essential to build a dream team.  A dream team is a group of people that will help you make your dreams come true.

You should include at least one mentor on your team who can help support you with guidance and encouragement at various steps along the way in building your business.  That mentor can be a teacher, a local business person, a family friend, an advisor the local Junior Achievement chapter, or a member of your family.

The most important skill that you must develop in order to put your dream team together is the ability to communicate your vision and ask for help.  Here are a couple of steps to help with that:

•   Communicate the vision for your business as clearly and with as much passion as possible.

•   When you ask for help, make a specific request.  The more specific you are, the more likely you will receive the help you are asking for.  On the other hand, if your request is not specific or if you are asking too much and people aren’t clear on what you are asking of them, they will probably refuse your request.

Here’s an example of two ways to make the same request:

1.   Can you pet sit for me?

2.   Can you pet sit my dog this weekend from 5:00 Friday night until  noon on Sunday at my home?  I will pay you $50 plus provide food for your meals?

Which of these examples is more specific?  Which one would you say yes to?  Why?

If people say, “No” to your requests, politely ask them why they can’t help you.  Maybe they need more information.  If you provide more information and they still say no, ask if they know someone who might be able to help you.  Don’t forgot to thank the people for their time.

When deciding on who to approach to be on your dream team, ask yourself these questions:

What friends can help me?

What family members can help me?

What friends of friends can help me?

What friends in my school community can help me?

Who in my local community can help me?

Which associations or organizations can help me?

Who are people I can go to for support?

Who are people I can ask for advice?

Who are people that I don’t know yet who can help me and how can I connect with them?

Next, make a three column chart with these three questions:

What do I need                   Who am I going                  What am I going

help with?                            to ask?                                   to say?

Answer the three questions.  Remember to be as specific as possible.

To help you find the right approach, write a short blurb, what some call an elevator pitch that gets your point across as quickly as possible.  Write your dream in 25 words or less then practice saying it out loud.  Practice it on a friend or family member and ask for feedback.  The more feedback you get, the better your presentation becomes.

“When you begin speaking your dream and enrolling others, your dream can become bigger and take on new forms, and all kids of opportunities will show up.” Marcia Wieder.

3 Envision Your Dream into Reality

Now that you’ve started to think about and identify the things that you are passionate about, the things that make you feel great when you are doing them, what next?

The next step is to create a visual of your dream life.  What do you want your life to be like if you could create it anyway you want it to be?

Would you be a famous actor or a rock star?  A winning athlete?  A chef at your own restaurant or a rich business owner?  Would you travel, fish, be a public speaker or teacher, design homes and lovely rooms, be an artist?  Would you be a New York Times bestselling author?

Would you drive a fancy car or be driven in a limo?  Would you own a motorcycle or ride a bike?  Maybe own a fleet of cars?  Have a Porsche?  Would you own a boat or have your own yacht?

Would you own a mansion or a cabin in the woods?  A house on the beach or live on an island?  Maybe you want to live in another country.

Use your imagination, visualize all the elements of your life that you can, write them down in the greatest detail that you see in your visualization.

Once that’s done, create a vision board using pictures or words or other images that reflect and represent the life that you have envisioned.  Gather picture books and magazines or your colored pencils and markers and create a collage on a wall or board.  You can glue it or staple it or pin it with a push pin.

According to Wikipedia, “A vision board, also called a dream boards, mind map or goal map, is typically a poster board on which people draw, paste or collage images that represent their desires, objectives, dreams and goals.  The intent is that vision boards be reviewed regularly to maintain focus on the depicted goals.

Research of something called mirror-neurons showed that neurologically, our minds cannot tell the difference between things we see that are real or those that are imagined.  One study found that people who imagined practicing a sport improved as much as people who actually practiced.

The mind processes information better in images and when we can create in our imagination what we want, the mind works subconsciously to create it.  As your board evolves and becomes more focused, you will begin to recognize what is missing and imagine ways to fill the blanks and realize your vision.

Here are a few examples of vision boards to give you an idea of how to proceed.

6 10 Thought Provoking Questions to Help You Find Your Passion and Choose Your Business

If you are new to this blog it’s important to know that I write with the intention of empowering youth to develop an entrepreneur mindset.  So if you already know and are working your business, you may not find all of my posts useful for your situation.  However, many of them can serve as good reminders and motivation for you as well.  I hope that you have as good a time reading the posts as I have had writing them.

We have considered a variety of exercises to do and steps to take toward finding your passion.  In this post I want to provide you with 10 questions meant to provoke a deeper level of looking for your passion and choose your business.

Spend some time considering each question.  Go as deep as you can with these questions.  When you get an answer, ask yourself, “is there more?”  Write down the ideas and insights that pop into your head.  Look for connections or themes between your answers.

1. What do you want to be known for in your life now and in the future?
2. If you could change just one thing in the world, what would that be?
3. What makes you feel good about yourself?
4. What is a goal that you have and how will you achieve it?
5. If you won a million dollars how would your life change?
6. What do you think your strengths are and what skills do you need to work on?
7. If you are feeling unmotivated, who or what helps you get yourself moving again?
8. Do you see yourself as a leader or a follower and why do you think that?
9. If you could spend a day with anyone – past or present – who would it be and why?
10. What are you not spending enough time doing?

Did you learn anything new about yourself from considering these questions?  Are you closer to finding your passion(s) and choosing your business?

7 10 Steps to Bring Passion Into Your Business and Your Life

Imagine every day being excited about your work and your life.

With a little creative thought and exploration you can discover your passion and find ways to integrate them into your work and your life.

Try these 10 steps to bring passion into your business and your life.

I.  Get to know yourself

Take a really close look at your life from your earliest memories to your current reality.  Look at all the times you’ve had fun and loved what you were doing.  Also take a look at the things that caused you pain or that you felt on a really deep, emotional level.  Write them down with a short description.

Pick one example from your list and try to find the reasons why you felt the way you did.  Go beyond what you love doing.  Break it down into the underlying characteristics.

The question WHY is a powerful tool for your explorations.  Asking why will take you to a deeper level of understanding.

2.  Brainstorm

Now that you have a better understanding of what your passions are, you can brainstorm some ways that you can work these passions into your business and your life.  Make a list and keep it with you so that you can add to it whenever you have another insight.

Be creative and add even your wildest ideas.  Just have fun with this exercise.

3.  Explore

In this part of the exercise you’re going to do some research to see who is talking or writing about the things you identified as being your passion(s).  Take some time to contact them.  Ask them questions about their passions.  Tell them you’re exploring your options, looking for ways to integrate those passions into your life and business.  It’s a great way to get some new ideas you haven’t already thought about.  And you might make some great contacts and develop some relationships while you’re at it.

4.  Take Baby steps

Don’t overwhelm yourself with these exercises.  You need to reserve some energy to actually incorporate your passions into your life and business.  If you don’t like to jump off the cliff into the abyss all at once, just take baby steps down.  Some people are great at just going for things and others need to take their time.  If you keep your focus on the long-term goal you can begin creating your passionate life.

5.  Identify your obstacles

Now that you know what your passion is and you’ve looked at what you’d like to do in the long term, and how you can bring it into your life in the short term, you need to identify your obstacles.  What is getting in your way?

Now what things are getting in your way? Make a list. Maybe they’re real – financial obstacles or perhaps the need for training.  Maybe they are internal obstacles like fear and uncertainty.  Figuring out what’s in the way will help you plan for how to minimize its impact.  But be careful not to fall into the trap of letting your obstacles take on a life of their own.  You’re looking at them to reduce their power, not enhance it.

6.  Create a Dream Team

Create a Dream Team to support you in your pursuit.  Friends, family, and others can all be a great source of support and inspiration as you make your journey.  It can be an informal support network, or a regularly scheduled meeting to exchange ideas and brainstorm solutions to challenges.

7.  Consider your definitions of success and failure

What is your definition of success?  Is it getting in the way of really pursuing what resonates at a deep level for you?  We live in a society that places a lot of emphasis on material accomplishments, power, etc. Unfortunately, that gets in the way of real happiness for a lot of people, who choose to stay on the treadmill in pursuit of that version of success.

Perhaps you’re not at a point where you can or want to change that definition of success.  That’s OK, don’t.  Instead, try identifying one or two less common ways of identifying “success” – ones that come from the heart – and try to move towards them as well.

Our definition of failure, which tends to be all or nothing, also gets in the way.  If you try something and it doesn’t pan out, how do you see that?  Is it a failure?  Or is it an opportunity to learn from what you did and apply that knowledge to your future efforts.

If you “fail” in an effort to move toward your passion, it’s not really failure.  Think of it as a step in the right direction.  Taking a longer term view can help with this.

8.  Make a plan

Creating a plan will force you to think things through and add some comfortable structure to something that can seem very up in the air and undefined.  It will also offer you those critical next steps when you aren’t feeling motivated.

9.  Act! Today!

Don’t ever use the excuse of waiting for the right time because the time will never be right.  Something is always going to be less than optimum.  With that in mind, don’t wait!  Do something right now that will move you toward your passion.

10. Commit to making it happen

Let it out of your brain and into the open.  Say, “I am going to do this.”  Say it out loud to yourself.  Say it to a friend.  Put it in writing and put it where you can see it.  Once it’s out in the open it will have room to grow.  And that’s exactly what you want!

What two things can you do right away that will start the ball rolling?  They don’t need to be earth-shattering, they just need to happen.

Good luck!

18 The Sensible Blogging Checklist

In this post we’re going to look at a checklist to create a successful blog.  This checklist was created as a guide by The Whole Brain Group, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based internet marketing company.   It is being used here with their full permission to reprint.  They even provided the html code to embed it in the post.  Thank you The Whole Brain Group.

You may not know this, but business blogging can increase your web traffic on average by 55%. Yesterday we looked at some reasons to have a blog. But how do you get started?

The Sensible Blogging Checklist will help!  Follow the simple suggestions in order to:

• Define your goals and audience
• Plan your content strategy
• Make sure your blog is user-friendly
• Optimize your posts for search
• Encourage engagement and content circulation

Don’t forget that this checklist is just a guideline to get you started! A really effective strategy and implementation plan takes a lot of thought and research.

Additionally, using this checklist can help you see the areas where you need more clarity.  For example, it reminds you to know and be able to define your niche, also called your audience, your tribe, or your clients.  The checklist makes you think about the people you are trying to reach and engage with.

In the “plan your content strategy” section, you are prompted to consider whether your blog serves both your business and your readers.  It makes you think about the details of what your blog content will be and how you will present it.

There’s a suggestion in the Content and Readability section that suggests that your blog should be under 350 words.  There’s some debate about that.  I’d like to suggest that you make that decision depending on your audience.  Some blogs, like mine, need to be as long as they need to be in order to explain the concepts being discussed.  If your audience is made up of people with attention deficit disorder, then I suggest you might want to consider keeping your posts under 350 words.  If your audience are intellectuals or college professors, well, there may be no limit on the number of words that are acceptable.  Do you homework, read other blogs that speak to your audience and see what’s popular and what is not.

One thing is certain, using this checklist will help you learn areas where you need to increase your knowledge and skill base.  With a bit of research, taking a free webinar, reading free ebooks/reports on blogging, you will learn all you need to learn to build a potentially successful blog.  I say potentially because no matter how good your skills are, without commitment and consistency, you won’t have a successful blog.

Take time to look over this checklist and lets discuss the questions at the end.

8 To Blog or Not to Blog For Your Business – That is the Big Decision

I suppose that those of us who are participating in this blogging challenge believe that blogging is in our best interest or we wouldn’t be here. Recently I talked with an internet marketing authority who doesn’t blog. He doesn’t find it useful. When I talked with another friend about it, I realized that he has no reason to blog. He doesn’t have a website and he’s spent a lot of years building his business and his following so he has a very large list to market to without blogging.

My friend does have a website, I have a website. We blog because:

We are concerned about SEO and Google rankings

We need to drive people to our online businesses

We want to increase our visibility

To build relationships

To get our message out to our niche

These seem to be the main reasons to have a blog.

Blogs ensure that your business is listed on the search engines as well as positions you and/or your business as an expert or authority. And blogs are far easier to update than your other web pages.

There are downsides to consider. Blogging is time consuming. Having a blog means making a commitment to write something on a specific schedule. It requires that you create content related to your business on a consistent basis and it should be fresh material in order to keep people coming back each time you post. You might have to develop some writing skills and in many cases, you have to keep abreast of what is happening in your industry or chosen area of business. You’ll need to keep track of what your competition is doing so research will be important.

Should you decide to have a blog, it would be a good idea to use a checklist to help you plan it. A great resource for checklists for internet and digital marketing is a company called The Whole Brain Group of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have developed a series of checklists to help you create your online marketing plan. In the next blog post we will look at how to use their Sensible Blogging Checklist to ensure you get the most value for the time you spend blogging.

33 Using the Ultimate Blog Challenge to Write “Pick From The Passion Tree”

It’s very exciting to be joining all of you in the October 2012 Ultimate Blog Challenge.  For those of you who don’t know, I address the crisis of youth unemployment by proposing that we guide our teenagers and young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset.  My first book, 31 Powerful Lessons: Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset is currently on sale as a digital book and as a perfect bound paperback book at my website and will soon be on Amazon.com and Kindle.  I wrote that book during the last Ultimate Blog Challenge using the daily posts as the foundation for the book.

Using this new blog challenge in the same manner, I plan to write the second book, Pick From the Passion Tree in what I call the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs series.  It is my sincere hope that you will read the posts and share your constructive criticism, positive feedback and any ideas you have that will enhance the topic I’ve written about.

I am also accepting guest posts about how to decide upon and start a business and other entrepreneurial ideas appropriate for teenagers and young adults.  Steve Eason has already provided a guest blog post about selling solutions to the customers’ pain.

I’m looking for exercises designed to help youth focus on identifying their passions and how to make decisions on how to build a business around those passions.  Checklists would be useful as well as free resources that young people can access to help them build their foundation and start down their path.  Some of these guest posts may be included in the new book (with your permission of course).

Additionally, if you have any advice you would like to share directly with young people, I would be happy to consider those posts as well as real stories of other successful, young entrepreneurs, both for the blog and possibly for the book.

There is no particular order to the posts as I have not yet organized what content will be in the book.  I do know that we’ll have some reality check exercises (two that I’ve already posted on this blog during September), some exercises for our youth to identify what they are passionate about.  The book will include information on social media, blogging and other business building blocks.

I am looking forward to reading and commenting on as many of your posts as possible during the course of the challenge.  It’s nice to meet you and it will be nice to get to know you.

8 Build Your Business Around Pain Relief: Solutions Sell

Today’s article is by guest blogger Steve Eason of

Ingenious Internet Income

You’ve probably been asked this question a few times from family and friends:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I remember my answer was that I wanted to be an astronaut.  Growing up in Florida, I had the unique opportunity to watch the Space Shuttle launch in school on television and then run outside to watch the plume as it rocketed into space.  Your answer was likely a little different, but usually it was something like a fireman, a policeman, a nurse, a teacher or just like my dad.

If you were asked that today what would your answer be?  According to recent surveys, close to 80% of those asked were dissatisfied with their jobs.  That’s over 123 million people in the US that are dissatisfied with what they do for a living.  Will you be one of them?

The greatest thing about Internet Marketing is that you can do what you love to do in a way that is helpful to others and make money doing it.  What a great combination.  Unfortunately so many people who hear me say that, just can’t comprehend how that it could be possible.

Today I was out getting my haircut and the stylist asked her usual conversation starting question of, “Are you on lunch from work?”  My answer was, “Sorta.  I work from home so my schedule is flexible.”  Then I was able to talk a little about what I do for a job, which is writing and teaching others how to build a business online.  You could tell that she was surprised and slightly interested in what I had to say, but she really had no idea that you could even do this.  I had a chance to share with her a little about what could be accomplished no matter what you were interested in.

It occurred to me that there are so many people out there that just don’t know what you can do with an online business.  As I was heading home, I was listening to a podcast on Internet Marketing, and there was a statement that resonated with me.  The statement encapsulated the idea that I’ve been working on with my business that I just never could put into words.  This statement summed it up quite nicely.

“I’m passionate about improving people’s lives.”

That just sums up what I’m doing and what I’m focusing on with my business.  I’m working to help improve people’s lives through my work.  By providing the best information I can to help as many people as possible, it begins to build a relationship that ultimately serves the greater purpose of helping others.

Creating a business that you love

How do you go about building a business around a topic or interest that you love?  What I’ve often suggested is to start by looking around you, at what you already enjoy doing in your free time.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard about someone starting an online business around their hobby or interest and having people practically knock down their door to buy.

Let me share with you a secret that if you follow it through to the end, will help you build a business that will allow you to do what you love to do and make money doing it.  It’s fairly simple, yet so many people fail to really go all the way with it.  And I will be the first to admit, I am one of those people.  Here it is and try not to be underwhelmed when you hear it.  Find the pain.  Yep, that’s it.

What does this really mean, to find the pain?  It means to look closely at your hobby or interest and see if you can identify something that is causing the most pain and then create or research a solution for that pain.  Just consider what you like to do and think through what you think is the most frustrating part of doing that hobby.

Let’s look at Remote Control (RC) Planes as an example.

If someone is interested in learning all they can about RC Planes, what are the common questions that they are going to have starting out?  What are the tools that they will need to get started?  Who are the best manufacturers for parts?  Are there any groups or clubs that they should know about or be introduced to?

Just consider a new person to your hobby or interest, and all the questions that they are likely to have.  Providing the answers to their questions is an entire course that you could create and sell.  People go to bookstores all the time and purchase a book that helps them understand how to get involved in specific hobbies.

What about the people who have been involved with RC planes for a longer period of time.  Could it be that they have something that has been a pain point in the hobby that they would love to have solution for?  You could find a local hobby group and ask.  You could also find a forum online that is actively discussing the hobby and then listen to what they are saying.  Figure out what is causing them the most frustration and then find a solution for that pain point.

Maybe you have learned how to program software and you hear that they would love a tool to track all the parts for their hobby or they need an app to record scores when attending RC airplane races.  What about an online resource that helps them track and organize RC airplane races for the community?  Create that tool or app with input from the local group and then sell it.  If that group likes it, it’s likely that other groups will as well.

When talking with people about their pain points, there is one recommendation that stands out above all others.  When trying to identify what those pain points are, you have to ask questions.  Lots of questions.  The most important questions you can ask during this discovery process are the following two questions.  What else?  And tell me more.  Well the last isn’t a question, but what it does is keeps them talking about what is frustrating.  Keep asking those questions until they run out of things to say.

By asking these questions and others you will start to understand their market and hobby, which helps to you be able to define the problem.  If you can define the problem even better than they can, then they will just naturally assume that you have the solution to the issue.

Here are a few more questions that you can ask which will help you further define the problem:

What are some of the things that make you want to throw your “X” out the window?  (X being the hobby, computer, etc).

What do you consider to be the most important activity in regards to your hobby?

Are there any pains associated with that?

What are the problems that cost you the most money?

How often does that happen?

This process is about trying to find out all you can about the subject in order to gain a better understanding so that you can define the problem.

Even if you already have a product you are selling or service you are providing, if you’re not seeing results, take a look at your product and start asking yourself the questions above.  Have you answered those questions?  Do you understand the problem better than your customers?  If people aren’t paying for your product, it’s likely because there isn’t enough pain associated with the problem that you’re trying to solve.  Take a step back and start from the beginning and make sure you’ve clearly defined the problem in the first place.

I hope this helps to open your eyes and gets you thinking about how you can start solving problems around you.  No matter what the niche is, there are problems that drive people crazy each and every day.  Problems that are costing people loads of money and time.  Never discount the value of saving people time.  Sometimes saving time is more valuable than saving money.  If you accurately define the problem and come up with a solution, you can build a successful business around that product.

Steve Eason is a professional blogger, internet marketer and social media enthusiast located in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area.  Find out more on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.  Or visit Ingenious Internet Income for more great information.

steve@ingeniousinternetincome.com

10 2 Easy Steps to Identify a Potential Business Based on Your Passion

Step 1:

This is an easy and fun exercise.  Think about times when you felt really passionate about what you were doing or times when you felt really alive and happy when you were doing something.

After you’ve thought about this for a little while, write down three memories from your life that you felt passionate about.  For example, “I loved learning survival skills at summer camp.  I really enjoyed backpacking in the wilderness.  I love traveling and enjoyed our vacation in the tropics.”

Look for a common theme in these memories.  The examples above might mean you love adventure.

You have now identified a potential passion around which to build an entrepreneurial business.

Step 2.

The second exercise is a mission to gather facts about building a business around your passion.

Possible businesses/careers regarding adventure could include being a travel agent, leading guided tours, running a white water rafting business, fishing, teaching camping and backpacking skills or simply selling outdoor supplies and accessories.

Do research on the internet or at the library about being an adventurer.  Find out what sorts of businesses already exist around your passion.  Good sources of information can be found using Google, Safari, Bing, or any other major search engine.

You have now started thinking about being an entrepreneur and creating a business doing something you love and will be happy doing.

What common theme did you identify from your memories?

18 Top 3 Tips to Cultivate Gratitude

by Alexandria Barker

Gratitude. It’s been called the most spiritual of all the emotions. It’s also one of the most powerful habits you can cultivate to help create a prosperous fulfilling life! When you feel gratitude, you can’t be angry or afraid. These emotions simply cannot inhabit your body at the same time. Feeling gratitude and appreciation puts you in a high-flying vibration that draws other wonderful things to you to be grateful for!
Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is as simple and basic as counting your blessings. There are many ways to incorporate this beautiful, powerful feeling into your life – here are some of my favorites:

1)  Gratitude Lists

Writing gratitude lists is simply counting your blessings and writing them down! It’s great to have a special journal for this, then whenever you need a lift, you need only review your book to be reminded of all the good things in your life! I recommend you write 5 items before bed. This sets you up for success, because your sub-conscious will keep processing these thoughts as you sleep, and you’ll wake up in a more positive state of mind.
Then, in the morning, write 5 more things you’re grateful for. Spend a moment thinking about each one, dwell in those beautiful feelings. This sets a powerfully positive tone for your day, and because you know you’ll need 5 more positive things to write that night, you’ll subconsciously be on the look-out for more things to be grateful for all day.

2) Gratitude Walks

As you begin your day, say “thank” with one foot and “you” with the other. Thank you is a beautiful powerful mantra! And by actively choosing this as your ‘go to” thought, you’re taking control of your thought processes, leaving less room for negative habitual thoughts.

Taking a walk in nature is the perfect time and place for a gratitude walk, which is also like a moving meditation. Simply focus on gratitude, either repeating the thank-you mantra, or by focusing on things you’re grateful for, like green grass, sunshine, birds singing, and being able to walk. Not only will you be burning calories and building muscle, you’ll be developing your gratitude muscle, paving the way for even better things to come your way!

3) Speaking Gratitude

It’s all to easy to do these practices, then slip back into familiar internal and external dialogue about things you don’t like — about the government, neighbors, your body, your boss. With a little practice you’ll find it easy to turn that around. Just say the opposite, find something good in all situations. It’s always there, though you may have to dig a bit. The more you make the effort, the easier it gets to be positive even if those around you are not.

Put these principles into practice, and you’ll see your life get better and better. Try and see!

Today’s guest poster is Alexandria Barker.  For more practical stress solutions, please visit her Wishful Thanking page.

Alexandria is an author, speaker, Life coach, and creator of the Wishful Thanking Manifestation System. As a Reiki Master/Teacher, Crystal Therapist, Akashic Records reader and Yoga teacher, she specializes in teaching the Law of Attraction and energy work.

Alexandria is happily married, has 4 children and 5 grand-children, and can honestly say she loves her life! Her goal is for you to be able to say the same!