Good day sunshine! Today is the first sunny warm day in my neighborhood. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, the music is playing, windows and doors are open,and everyone has on a pair of shorts! It seems like the world is overflowing with influential energy! Everyone is enjoying their lives and the people and things around them. Isn’t that a huge part of what the influence factor is about? Funny, that it takes the sunshine to bring it out and most people.
Imagine if we channeled this sunshine energy every day? What would be different? How influential you could be?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
For years as an international speaker I have had colleagues, participants in my classes and presentations, family, friends and even publishers tell me I have a book or two I should be writing. I have continuously said: “I’m a speaker, not a writer.”
Seth Godin called me out on that limiting belief! He said that no one says they have talkers’ block; they just say they have writers’ block. Anyone can talk out what they want to become their published book. Heck, that is how I wrote this blog post!
Recently, a great friend and publisher of Our Little Books approached me again (yes again, I backed out once before) with a great opportunity. My chance to become a published author is in my lap again! And I got scared.
Honestly I didn’t fully understand where this was coming from. What am I so afraid of? Why is it that when this huge opportunity presents itself I panic? I have a 40 page undergraduate thesis that is published! So what the heck is my problem?
This weekend I had an epiphany as to why. In graduate school I took an adult development course. This class was run by two professors widely known in the Puget Sound Region as women you wanted to learn from. I was so excited about being in their class. One of our assignments was to create a ritual or write a fairytale that described how we became the adults we are today.
Excited, I wrote a fairytale about how I became who I am and what allowed me to heal to become who I am. One of these professors actually ripped apart the paper. She said that I didn’t know myself and I failed the assignment. The other teacher disagreed, but guess what I held onto?
The rejection.
Now I have to get over that fear of rejection so I can write my book. It’s not so easy when people say just write it. Some of you may relate to this form of rejection and if you’re not willing to deal with it, how will you ever get to a place where you create what you’re meant to create?
So I am working to overcome this fear. The fairytale I wrote in 1994 was on a typewriter. In 2010, I had it typed so it could be shared, but still held it away. Part of me realized that sharing is how I heal. Putting this on my blog will help me heal. Sharing my fairy tale will help even more, even in its raw unedited form. It’s not about having people tell me it’s good. It’s about being ok with putting myself out there further even again.
I have to let it go, and know it doesn’t matter what others think, as the story will touch who it is meant to touch.
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
In a recent interview I was asked a great question: What was the best advice that you’ve ever been given that you’ve taken to heart? I knew my answer immediately: Know your value.
Stop devaluing yourself. Stop charging less than you’re worth. Stop taking less pay, fewer benefits and bad leadership. OWN your worth. I think that is the biggest lesson, the biggest. And I think it’s a big lesson for a lot of people. And once that finally clicked for me, which trust me, it took me a long time! When I was finally able to say no, it is worth this much money and that is my fee, new, different clients stepped into my world. I am often questioned about me fee, it was interesting because I just went through it. You might have heard I closed BMW as a client here a couple of weeks ago.
BMW approached me to work with their team over a year. I actually had discounted it because they were agreeing to a year because if I can get a client to commit to a year of business, that’s very different than a client that just commits to a month, or one day right? And at one point, the decision maker said to me, “Would you be willing to come down on this price? You’re pretty pricey based on what we’ve looked at out there.” And I said, “I’m the BMW of what I do. Are you willing to sell me a $70,000 BMW for $50,000?” Then he laughed. He said “no”. I said, “There you go.” The next day, he accepted the contract.
Knowing your value and the value of what you offer is one of the biggest and best pieces of advice I have ever been given. I will write more on this topic and HOW to determine it and get over the mental crap that might be stopping you as it did me.
Do you know your value?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
I think stepping into your true power and having greater success requires that you LIKE yourself. For years I have used this simple, yet powerful activity with myself and those I coach. It’s easy when asked, “do you like yourself?” to quickly answer “yes”. Doing this activity will bring the TRUTH of that to life. I recently made participants at Empowered Brilliant Sexy do this. (Now granted they were not ALONE, so that makes a difference; you need to be by yourself when you do it)
Here is what I shared with them:
Go to a mirror; look yourself in the eye and say: “I like you.” What happens? You will learn so much. Say it everyday – you saw why in the video!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Creating a customer experience is not always easy, but there are great examples every day if you watch. I have been a HUGE fan of Guerrilla Marketing for many years, and recently had an amazing “Guerrilla” customer experience via Twitter. There is nothing more powerful than having it happen to you! You may not be in social media, but you are in customer service. Everyday we are given the opportunity to BE Influential with our customers, internal or external.
Comcast has never really been my favorite. But @ComcastBill is my superhero. I personally think they should have him training the CSR’s that answer the 800 technical issue line. And because of @ComcastBill I’m still a Comcast customer.
What can we learn from @ComcastBill about how we can use a brilliant Guerrilla Marketing techniques to increase customer experiences and be more influential?
Listen more and talk less.
Let the customer have their experience. Understand the power of empathy, even when you think they are RUDE!
Never say “calm down”.
Follow up- are they satisfied now?
If something negative happens; deal with integrity and good communication.
What Guerrilla Marketing techniques can you embrace in your business?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
My first job out of college was working with abused and neglected teenage girls: sexually, physically and emotionally abused and neglected, drug and/or alcohol addicted, pregnant and/or parenting. Their world was defined by limiting beliefs. When I started developing self -esteem groups for them, I realized the power of what we tell ourselves. It’s everywhere! Now over 20 years has gone by and I still teach limiting beliefs. They are critical to building the Influence Factor in your life. Sometimes I think my clients think I am crazy when they sign up for the Social Networking Coaching Club and have to do a limiting beliefs activity with me! I do it with all my clients, it is even in my book, The Influence Factor
Even last weeks post was about our own limiting beliefs. My own limiting beliefs, and what I did to face some of them!
One of my corporate clients has recently asked me to take the first half of the Social Networking Coaching Club and turn it into online training on building a business brand. I am honored to do so, as they see that I teach so much more than “how to tweet”! I did this video to work with their 1099 contractors for the limiting beliefs section around building their business, and thought I’d share with you:
That last piece is so critical: Things that create negative emotion, that anger us about others, that fight or flight we often feel is often because of a limiting belief. Next time you feel that way about something ask yourself what the belief is that you tell yourself. You may be surprised.
For many of us, like the teenagers I counseled we did not first create those beliefs – others around us did, even if not intentionally. Eventually you have to own them though. For example, I remember growing up with a single mom who constantly talked about how BROKE we were. For many years I worked, and was broke. I worked harder and was broke. I worked more and was still broke. Until I realized that my moms voice had become mine. I worked to change it.
One technique I have taught when speaking is to tell the voice to STOP! But then, and this is very important, replace the voice with something new and powerful, or the old pattern creeps back in. I also wrote another blog about the power of I AM and how to rewrite those tapes
What limiting beliefs do you have that you want to change? What techniques do you use?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Good day sunshine! Today is the first sunny warm day in my neighborhood. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, the music is playing, windows and doors are open,and everyone has on a pair of shorts! It seems like the world is overflowing with influential energy! Everyone is enjoying their lives and the people and things around them. Isn’t that a huge part of what the influence factor is about? Funny, that it takes the sunshine to bring it out and most people.
