The three B’s of Leadership are traits that come from within. They can be developed over time, but are inherent within each of us.

The number one “B” is Buoyancy. Having buoyancy means being resilient. You need to be one who has a light heart; is encouraging; unsinkable and uplifting. You add purpose to the work you and your team are engaged in. And as such you are required to be buoyant. Buoyancy means to be positive, positive, and always positive. Don’t spend your time looking for things that went wrong; spend it looking for things that went right, and then build on them. Leaders must be able to manage up. Never display a behaviior of blaming your boss, which many people do, you’ll never empower yourself to become a strong leader. Do not provide insincere flattery, but rather build a rapport with your boss in the same way as you would any other colleague. Your boss is human too. You need to roll with decisions and be openly supportive. Share your concerns privately.

The second “B” leaders must have is Belief. Having a firm belief in what you say and do is imperative. You must be true to your assumptions and convictions that you hold to be true regarding people, concepts, or things. How can one possibly lead others without a firm belief in what they are doing? Impossible! People will see though you in no time and you, your reputation and your ability to lead will be totally debilitated. So understand what your product offer is; explore it well and align the mission and vision to your values and clearly determine for yourself if it is something you can completely believe in and support.

The third “B” is Behavior. Leaders must show emotionally balanced behavior. They must be recognized listeners and must never over react to situations. Leaders must display behaviors that instill confidence in people. This behavior includes strong decision-making skills and the ability to accept or share responsibility for success and failures. One must show respectful behaviors such as being on time for meetings, respecting other’s opinions, and able to maintaining objectivity. How a leader reacts and responds to challenges often sets the tempo for team members. If the team perceives that the leader is overwhelmed, stressed, or otherwise losing effectiveness, team members may in turn become distracted and ineffective.

Leaders should constantly strive for the optimal performance. This includes the performance of themselves, the company’s teams, and all staff.

Depending on yourself, without a doubt, is easier than you might think. You have the courage and strength within you to move beyond fear and limitation, with which to take your life to the next level. Teachers/professionals may point the way, but you yourself need to take every step necessary to move in the direction of your soul and life purpose.

Avoid fooling yourself to believe that your happiness and success is in the hands of other people about what they will or won’t do for you or if you get their validation or not. It is entirely up to you if you desire happiness and independence or not. No one is forcing you to hang out with people who don’t resonate with your values, desires or dreams.

Avoid allowing anyone to tell you how to live your life when you know in your heart which steps lead in the direction of your soul’s path.

Mental/Emotional health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his/her potential while navigating the stresses and vicissitudes of life, working productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her/his community.

Mental/Emotional and Physical Health and Wellness is the act of remaining calm and focused while working things out with respect and unconditional intent to find a solution. Ultimately your personal character; personal strength and courage will evolve. To attain wellness requires you to make healthy choices in nutrition, relationships, social contact, work, and leisure activities.

Mind, Body, and Spirit transformation is possible without psychotropic drugs, artificial hypnotic inductions, rituals, life-long coping strategies, and psychic interventions. I have assisted many people to transform/ transmute the cause of what’s preventing them from reaching their desires.

You can do it.

Remember, success is nothing more than a state of mind. You attract what you focus on or move it away, it all depends on the way you think. As Henry Ford aptly said, “If you think you can do a thing, or you think you can’t, you are right.”

Running a small business is as challenging as trekking to Mt. Everest without having oxygen cylinder, prior practice, and a valid map guide. The challenges are only because there are no authentic rules that can lead a small business towards success while other major obstacles comprise: low budget, limited manpower, and lack of efficient resources. But as a small business owner, you must delve into the passcodes that help you decode the secret patterns of operating a successful startup or small business. It not only helps you to sustain your current growth but also excel your business planning’s to achieve higher objectives. There are a few suggestions based on real-world experiences, which can assist you to hit the bull’s eye.

1- Utilize the power of social media:

Nowadays, the entire world revolves around social media and if you are able to use its full potential, it can immediately help you increase your sales and brand reputation with very minimum resource and effort. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, help you connect with a large scale of users, where you can directly interact with them, thereby allowing you to convert them into your potential clients. It forms a two-way channel that not only allows you to put your message across but also, listen to what your targeted audience want, which eventually goes a long way in improving and growing your business.

2- Research and analyze your competition:

A business turns to be successful only if it runs on some finely grinned facts and figures. And competition analysis is one of the most important elements of the process. Competition analysis tells you the strength you will require to establish your brand in the market as well as it helps to prepare your business planning adequately so that you could avoid the chances of business failure. An additional benefit of competition research is it allows for designing and developing more feasible and user-oriented products that eventually help you attain a competitive edge over the current market.

3- Work as per your plan but be flexible too:

Efficient planning is a roadmap that drives your business to the top in the long run with predefined routes. It is always advised to stick with our planning even if we face a few hurdles while running our business given that the strategies are designed after in-depth analysis. And day-to-day challenges should not incline you to alter with whatever you planned. The winners always back their business plannings regardless of the stiff challenges, but on the other side, a successful business requires the owner to be flexible enough to embrace new changes. Adapting the new ideas and concepts not only makes a business owner take smart decisions but also, keeps their core planning intact and fresh.

4- Use informative materials to build trust and loyalty:

The Internet is the best medium to reach out to the huge audience with less effort, but you should keep the fact in mind that there is already a heavy flow of advertisements and endorsements all over the web. So, what can be an efficient way to create our presence with a significant impact?

There are definitely some better ways to do it like using informative online materials such as well-written blogs, well-designed infographics, animated videos demonstrating some set of skills, and presentation sheets, etc. Following such practices will attract a huge mass to our platform to learn and engage with us, which gives a sense of trust and ultimately convert them into our long-term clients.

5- Hire your weaknesses:

A small business consists of a team of limited dedicated professionals, having different skill sets of all the corners to tackle most of the business requirements. Small businesses, sometimes, compromise in some crucial areas since they can’t hire specific individuals due to the lack of budget. To get your business positioned to the top, please don’t bear with your inefficient area. Rush into hiring experienced professional(s) so that all parts of your business fire with the same intensity.

6- Be ready for mergers and acquisitions:

Even after working with your full potential, you may not generate enough force to compete with the leading competitors. Other small businesses with the same concept may face the same situations. Just find them and join in the talks to check the possibilities of the merger to form a combined force, which can provide the required pace and power to achieve the common business goals. Mergers have a long, rich history of producing successful businesses, so don’t shy away with it. Similarly, business acquisitions are a noble idea to inject more strength to our business if budget allows us to do so.

7- Keep the quality service always on:

Quality service is the most important source that keeps your client for a longer period of time and it spreads huge positive feedbacks in the mass, driving in a large number of new clients. There have been more than just a few businesses reaching to the top just on the base of excellent service and even without spending a bomb on advertisements and business promotions. While there are other businesses which have failed miserably because of giving no importance to the quality of the services they provided. All in all, having the sound quality of the products/services is the key to succeeding in today’s cut throat competition.

8- Don’t give up:

Running a successful business is not a child’s play since it requires a lot of guts, courage, and risk-taking capabilities. It, sometimes, shakes your ambitions when going through some rough patches, and you need to have the burning desires within you to keep it alive. Keeping patience is also an important character that the small business owner must have, as the formation of a business and climb the ladder of success, demands to wait for long period of time. So, as a business owner, you need to instill never give up attitude to see your dreams come true!!

Summing it up, though the above-mentioned points are not entirely foolproof but yes, following these points will definitely help you to become a smart small business owner who can defy all the challenges and get on the top of the competition. Of Course, the chances of success or failure of your business completely depends on your planning and execution.

When it comes to success, many people have it one sided; they would love for you to do well… but in reality not THAT WELL. Once people surpass a level of success that you feel is superior to your own level of success, you may feel that tingle of jealousy and rage at one time, or maybe even hatred for that person. This comes from a psychological survival program that has been around throughout the ages; specifically throughout the tribal days where people lived in a community of 30 to 60 people at most, for most of their lives!

There is also a program that causes men to have “weak knees” for women. That program arose when a woman denied the sexual advance of a man, and many times the alpha male would kill the man who was rejected! So, you see today, 99.9999999% of the time when a man is denied a date from a woman, someone isn’t going to come kill them; therefore the program is out-dated! Jealously use to be useful for survival in such tribal periods by triggering people to fight against their competitors in order to survive; however, in today’s thriving society it is no longer needed to become jealous and fight those who are doing better than us because there is plenty of room for everyone to succeed. So, jealousy is an unnecessary dog-eat-dog program in today’s abundant world, and in order to be successful in today’s abundant world you need to remove jealousy and actually praise the success of others in order to succeed.

So, when you can accept others’ successes you will find that your subconscious starts to change the program inside your mind and you will not be so resistant to success, and thus you are more likely to succeed!

Why is this so absolutely important to start telling yourself it’s okay to celebrate the success of others? Resistance is what Law of Attraction guru’s call “Blocks”; blocks are forms of your subconscious sabotaging your conscious plans and ideas. All of the reasons you can think of to prove that others’ success will impede on you and your success will become true! But once you can view this as false and KNOW that this is a ever growing universe and others’ success will no hurt you, you will succeed further; in the end it really is helpful to you when your around people who are succeeding. Look at it like this, the more people you know and hang around that are successful, the greater the chances you will also be successful in life. If you take your five closes friends that you hang out with, get their yearly income and divide it by 5, you will realize that the number you get will be close to what your making right now!

Do everything you have to to start filling your head with abundance, and celebrating others will be easy because you know by celebrating them, you tell yourself it’s okay for you to be successful! When we praise the success of others, we affirm to ourselves that we want success too; we connect the joyous feeling of praise with the act of success.

The subconscious mind is the key to all of the wealth you will ever need in your life; do not take these lessons lightly they are the means to unlock your potential. You’ve been programed by histories of people before you and the civilization, culture, and family that you grew up to know! If your family believed that riches we’re only created by evil men, you’ll have a subconscious/conscious belief that to be rich you must have screwed someone over. But is this true? Absolutely not! So you see how your subconscious will fight with the idea of being rich if it’s telling you that you have to be evil, but that is just something you can not do?

Eliminate all the bullshit by unlocking your subconscious mind, find any and all reasons to celebrate others NOW!

Success means different things to everyone. Each of us is on his or her own path toward their ultimate destiny in life. The characteristics for success are different for each of us. Some people call themselves a success when they have reached a certain financial status while others call themselves successful when they have achieved some worthy goal. There are hundred’s of potential qualities success. Hundreds of books have been written about the traits of successful people. This quiz is a brief yet focused look at what I believe are the critical qualities, attitudes and philosophies required for success in any area of life. Why not share this quiz with your fellow employees, family members and or friends. It may help them become more focused on their day by day travel trough life.

See the end of this quiz for answers to this quiz.

1. Success means different things to everyone: True/False.

2. It is vital to have clear written goals to achieve success: True/False/It depends.

3. Exposing yourself to motivational materials can ensure your success: True/False/It depends.

4. Surrounding yourself with successful people can accelerate your success: True/False.

5. If you are motivated sooner or later you will achieve the success you desire: True/false.

6. Failure is inevitable on your journey to success: True/False.

7. A mentor can help you achieve more and faster: True/False.

8. Making wise choices is vital to your success: True/False.

9. It is important to have ______________________________________ to succeed.

10. It is helpful for your ultimate success if you keep a record of your successes and failures:

True/False.

11. Attitude is ________________________________________________ in success.

12. Uncontrolled stress can slow your progress to success: True/False.

13. Having balance in all areas of your life is important for success: True/False.

14. Roadblocks can stall your success: True/False/It depends.

15. Persistence is a key factor in success: True/False.

16. Thought-control is one of the critical issues in success: True/False.

17. It is important to have pas_________________________and com_______________________

18. Problems on the road to success are_______________________________________________

19. Affirmations can ensure your success: True/False/It depends.

20. Nothing can stop a person who knows what they want and why they want it: True/False.

21. Desire for success can make up for a lack of other conditions and skills: True/false.

22. People who are successful tend to keep their life fo___________________________.

23. People who believe in themselves and their mission tend to be successful: True/False.

24. Singleness of purpose is the starting point of all success: True/False.

25. Success can be achieved without extra effort: True/False.

26. Success is a journey not a destination: True/False/It depends.

27. To achieve success you will have to make trade-offs or sacrifices: True/False.

28. People who are successful avoid negative people: True/False.

29. Successful people continually invest in themselves and their skills and attitudes: True/False.

30. Successful people are able to adapt to change quickly and effectively: True/False.

31. Successful people manage their____________________ and _________________________.

32. Successful people have a d____ I____ n____ philosophy.

33. Sales ability is an important quality for success: True/False.

34. Optimism is important for success: True/False.

35. You can achieve success without self-discipline: True/False.

36. Successful people have fun while moving toward their goals: True/False.

37. Money, power and fame are the prime motivators for success: True/False.

38. The ability to bounce back from___________________________is an important trait.

39. Doing what they love is important to successful people: True/False.

40. Successful people are fiscally responsible: True/False.

41. Successful people have a healthy ego and manage it with care: True/False.

42. Problems are just as common to successful people as failure: True/False.

43. Having success is no guarantee that you will be happy: True/False.

44. Successful people tend to be nicer than failures: True/False/It depends.

45. It is important to have big dreams to be successful: True/False.

46. Patience is a trait of most successful people: True/False/It depends.

47. Successful people deal in reality: True/False/Always/Sometimes/It depends.

48. Successful people always reach their goals: True/False.

49. How are you doing on your journey to success?

50. You could be more successful if or when_____________________________________

SCORING

50 correct answers……….You should be giving the quiz.

45-50 correct answers……….You are more successful than most people.

40-45 correct answers……….You have it together unless you lied about some of your answers.

35-40 correct answers………..You are on the right track. Keep learning and growing.

25-30 correct answers………..You need to spend some time evaluating your life and attitudes.

25 or less correct answers……Get a life.

Correct Answers: Success Quiz

Keep in mind that the answers to several of the questions are subjective. In many cases there is no right or wrong answer only – a best or better answer. This quiz is not designed to give you an in-depth explanation for each answer but rather to stimulate your thinking. With this in mind let’s take a look at what I believe – are some of the vital issues in the area of happiness.

1. True.

2. It depends.

3. It depends.

4. True.

5. True.

6. True.

7. True.

8. True.

9. Goals, vision, effort, resolve, commitment, desire.

10. True.

11. Everything.

12. True.

13. True.

14. It depends.

15. True.

16. True.

17. Passion and commitment.

18. Opportunities, learning, necessary, inevitable.

19. It depends.

20. True.

21. True.

22. Focused.

23. True.

24. True.

25. False.

26. It depends.

27. True.

28. True.

29. True.

30. True.

31. Time and resources.

32. Do it now.

33. True.

34. True.

35. False.

36. True.

37. False.

38. Adversity, failure, problems.

39. True.

40. True.

41. True.

42. True.

43. True.

44. It depends.

45. True.

46. It depends.

47. It depends.

48. False.

49. Up to you.

50. Ditto.

In the network marketing home business arena there is a saying, “stories sell and facts tell”. Most people enjoy listening to a good MLM success story. There are thousands of MLM home business opportunities. If you are like me you would like to pick the right company rather than to become a statistic.

I know this young man that was a Stanford University Graduate that went on to become a network marketing legend. He graduated with an economics degree then choose to be a network marketer. After a few short years in the industry he was amassing $200,000 a month income. He then sold his business for a few million to become co-founder of a start up company.

MLM success stories are everywhere. The MLM industry has created more millionaires than any other industry. There are many rags to riches MLM success stories. One that comes to mind was about a single mother raising her children in abject poverty, she then joined an MLM home business and within a year was driving a Jag.

I heard another MLM success story about a 75-year-old man that started his MLM home business career and then by the age of 80 he was a millionaire. The one thing all of these MLM success stories have in common is that they all had a “WHY”, a purpose, and a reason for starting their business. They all had a burning desire to be successful. And they all had a laser focus, never taking their eyes off of the bull’s eye, their goal. Martin Luther Kings says, “keep your eyes on the prize and your obstacles will disappear.”

When you are ready you too can become a “MLM Success Story!” Decide what your “WHY” is for you and have faith. Remember what Martin Luther King says, “faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Then pick a sponsor, company, product and compensation plan that you are passionate about. Develop a 1 to 2 year plan and get started with your sponsor and newfound friend. Make a commitment to never quit and you too will make history and be an MLM success story.

In network marketing home businesses stories will always outsell facts. Remember the MLM motto “stories sell and facts tell”. Become a high paid storyteller. Most people enjoy a good story and most good storytellers are highly paid. With the right story and the right company you too will be a legend in MLM home business.

In athletics, the goal has always been to win; that’s the point of the game! Especially at the higher levels, collegiate and professional, a coach easily becomes frustrated when the athletes are not performing. Lack of performance usually results short-term, in losing the game, and long-term, a coach losing his job. Athletes do not execute for two main reasons: 1) unprepared physically or 2) unprepared mentally. The saying “it’s 90% mental 10% physical” is the reality. Coaches tend to stress the importance of practice, lifting weights, and staying conditioned but what about the mental game? Can a coach prime his athletes mentally before a competition and achieve more tallies in the win column?

William Cusick, author of All Customers Are Irrational, believes that a person’s decisions and actions initiate in the subconscious mind and are influenced by outside factors. “Priming describes a phenomenon wherein a person is subconsciously reacting to an environment or stimulus that is inherently positive or negative” (Cusick pg. 88). The subconscious reduces decision making by compiling information from past experiences, patterns, and non-conscious stimuli (nonconscious priming). “Nonconscious priming cues can be words, trait or category concepts, environmental or material objects” (Brechue, William. “Non-conscious activation of behavior and performance; Priming success in the classroom”). These categories of priming may not be useful for every athlete but acknowledging the potential influence and testing for results can positively impact the team.

Brechue gives examples and researched experiments for each priming technique.

Words: Individuals primed with the concept of politeness or rudeness were less or more likely to interrupt a conversation (Bargh, et al., 1996). Priming fairness significantly altered price negotiations and more cooperative bargaining strategies among individuals (Maxwell, et al., 1999).

Environmental: When shown a picture of an upscale restaurant, individuals were primed to recognize words associated with well- mannered behavior. The “upscale restaurant” prime also had an impact on behavior in that during an “eating experiment” appropriately primed individuals spent more time cleaning up after themselves and left their area cleaner than controls.

Trait/Behavioral: The chameleon effect is the unintentional mimicking of another individuals expressions, actions or movements during social interactions. (Chartran and Bargh, 1999). In a social setting, one individual adopts the expressions and mannerisms of the other individual. In an experimental setting, subjects consistently mimicked smiling, foot shaking and body postures taken by the experimenter during various cooperation tasks or discussion. The impact on the social setting showed subjects perceived their interaction more positive when the person mimicked the subject’s mannerisms and postures. In contrast, subjects reported negative experiences when the experimenter explicitly avoided mimicking the subject’s expressions or movements.

Object: When asked to judge the interaction between two people from a vague description, individuals were more likely to judge the interaction as cooperative or competitive depending upon the presence of a backpack or a briefcase. Objects of business (briefcase, boardroom table, etc.) stimulated a competitive environment and behavior. Contrastingly, the backpack represented an object of leisure that led to more cooperation. Interestingly, these observations indicated a similar response when exposed to the actual object or merely a picture of the object.

As a college coach, I feel I can use these techniques to motivate my athletes to compete. In the past, the coaching staff repeatedly emphasized working physical softball skills, which has contributed to more success, but the team continues to struggle staying mentally focused throughout the season. We have been notorious for starting a game with little or no energy and letting down intensity if we fall behind on the scoreboard. I used to think it was a personnel issue. The people on the team lacked mental toughness, competitive drive, and passion for being successful, so those were the reasons contributing to the failure. After researching the topic of priming, I now realize I have the power to influence my team in a positive, competitive direction. It is not a personnel issue; it is a lack of mental preparation.

There are many opportunities throughout the season to prime an athlete. The team locker room, bus rides for transportation and off days between games provides plenty of time for subtlety priming the players. This spring season, I want to experiment with my athletes by watching a motivational, inspirational movie on the bus or in the hotel room the day before a game, controlling our home field environment by playing upbeat, high-energy music on game day, and posting softball related and non-softball pictures that represent competing, attacking, winning, positivity, and excellence in the locker room as well as on the door of the charter bus. With all of the current and past data, I am confident priming the Western Carolina’s softball team will prepare them mentally on the field and result in a winning 2016 season.

When I originally got the idea for this blog entry, I was thinking in terms of success in business, as a result of three lackluster experiences I recently had with customer service at three different businesses. Then, when I sat down to write about it, I soon realized that goodwill is vital to all areas of life.

Goodwill is similar to integrity in that in takes time to develop but can be lost in an instant. As my cousin says, “Goodwill is a byproduct of doing the right thing.” Webster’s dictionary defines goodwill as “a kindly feeling of approval and support: benevolent interest or concern.”

This definition makes clear that whether it is with your business associates, teammates, coaches, or bosses, or in your interpersonal relationships, without goodwill it is difficult to get beyond a surface level with any of them.

In today’s ultracompetitive world everything that gives you a leg up on the competition makes your success more likely. As successful businessman Marshall Field was fond of saying, “Goodwill is the only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.”

Each of the three companies from whom I experienced poor customer service developed varying degrees of goodwill – mostly negative – from me. The one that earned the most goodwill eventually offered me an acceptable solution and I am still doing business with them (though on a more cautious basis now).

One of the other two offered worthless suggestions, compounding my initial frustration. The last one had a website that failed repeatedly to send my complaints and was unresponsive to the ones that did go through. Needless to say, it would have taken a lot of goodwill to overcome these slights and I decided to close both of those accounts.

One of the quickest ways to earn goodwill is to exceed expectations. Here’s a recent example of a business that engendered massive amounts of goodwill from me. I ordered a supplement and a few weeks after receiving my order I received another package from them with a new bottle of what I had previously ordered and the following note enclosed:

“I want to take a moment to thank you for your recent purchase. As a token of our appreciation we sent you your next bottle free of charge. You will not be charged for this bottle and are not signed up to an auto-ship program of any kind. We just wanted to say a quick hello and thank you”

-Greg, Founder of Weyland Brain Nutrition

Not only did they send me my next bottle free of charge, they also enclosed a bottle of another product for me to try. I have since recommended them to several of my clients and am now a devoted customer.

The same phenomenon happens in our interpersonal relationships. When you go the extra mile for a co-worker, boss, friend, lover, coach or teammate, you engender goodwill and strengthen your bond with them. This in turn will lead to greater trust and loyalty, thus opening the door to greater possibilities for the relationship.

Most people want to stand out from the crowd and are frustrated when they don’t. I like to tell my clients that if you don’t like being stuck in the crowd, go the extra mile; it’s never crowded there. It’s a simple recipe for success that is often neglected by the masses and will also go a long way towards engendering plenty of goodwill from others.

You can follow Sam on Twitter @SuperTaoInc

It’s been said that ‘Great Leaders’ are also ‘Great Followers’. Now, you may be wondering, how can a leader also be a follower? Well, the answer’s very simple: Everyone learns from someone else.

Consider the ‘Great Leaders’ of our time. They all mention how they were influenced, inspired and mentored by other leaders; and how that leadership helped them become the successful men and women they are today.

Oprah Winfrey names Maya Angelou as her mentor; Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft were mentored by PC Inventor Ed Roberts. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook was mentored by Steve Jobs, and Don Graham of The Washington Post.

‘Great Leaders’ recognize early in their careers, the value of ‘following’ a great leadership coach; someone who’s already experienced the success and achievement they want for themselves.

The pursuit of excellence is an ambitious undertaking. Having a powerful and talented Life Coach can make the difference between success and failure.

So, what about you?

Who are you following?

Have you identified successful people that you admire, and aspire to follow?

Are you working with a life coach now? If not, you may be missing a vital component of your future success and greatness.

To achieve the levels of excellence you desire, you must:

• Continue to improve and fine-tune your skills
• Expand and enhance your creative and innovative abilities
• Relate to and communicate with those you manage, as well as those who manage you

The easiest and fastest way to do this is to work with a Life Coach. A coach can be your most valuable asset. In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to maintain a fresh perspective and stay current on changing trends, patterns and practices in your personal and professional life.

A Life Coach will provide the guidance and support you need to accomplish these goals. A coach will help you clarify areas that need improvement, and hold you accountable to ensure you stay on track and on target, in a timely and reasonable manner.

Now is the time to make that commitment to your success. The first step is to ‘decide’ to follow a ‘Great Leader’. The next step is to find your ‘Ideal Coach’ and make them part of your success team.

Your ‘Ideal Coach’ may be a professional life coach, a boss, a business or civic leader, or simply someone you know who’s willing to show you the way.

The most important things to look for in choosing your coach are:

• Synergy: Having that special energetic connection that enhances your coaching experience and can greatly accelerate your progress, is essential
• Relatability: Your coach should be doing, or has done what you aspire to do
• Relevant Knowledge and Experience: Their skills, wisdom and talents should be appropriate for what you desire to accomplish

As a professional life coach and mentor, I specialize in and can help you accomplish these 3 things:

• Define, clarify and map out your vision, goals and desired results
• Open your mind to allow shifts in perspective and behavior, accept new ideas and manage the changes that will come as you grow
• Master the art of great communication

With my help, you’ll learn to master these 3 skills and more. I will provide the leadership, encouragement, and inspiration you need to empower you to achieve your goals, and attain the great success you desire.

Virtual Assistant Tips To Success

Virtual Assisting has become one of the most exciting and rewarding home-based businesses. What a privilege it is to be a part of such an evolutionary industry that continually grows and offers new opportunities and rewards for those coming into the business and those veteran pros as well. Marketing your Virtual Assistant business can be a rewarding adventure, providing you with permanent clientele and additional profits.

Here are some ideas you might want to explore:

Tip #1 — Add a P.S. to your Signature Line: We all know how important that signature line is for your business success. Here’s a simple way to make it even more profitable–Add a P.S. to your e-mail messages. You can offer your clients additional discounts or let them know about a new service. Did you just get a new VA certificate? Tell them! This can be a perfect opportunity to perhaps toot your horn a little.

Tip #2 – Learn from the Pros: Continually search for new and worthwhile sites that offer tips on marketing. There are pros out there specializing in marketing. Let them guide you into making more profits. For example, recently I found this site-thewebmuse.com. It has fabulous marketing tips, special reports you can receive for as little as $9.95, affordable teleclasses on marketing, and a monthly newsletter, “The Museletter.” I could go on, but go check it out for yourself and then see how you can profit from it as well.

Be a mentor. I know one of the ways that I’ve actually increased my business is mentoring others and networking with others. Any networking is valuable and when you mentor you become an expert at the same time as helping others out.

Tip #3 – Market with Candy Wrappers or Business Magnets: Do something different with your marketing. Candy wrappers can be a perfect way to show your clients your uniqueness and catch their attention. You can get your company name and logo printed on them. If visiting local clients, prepare a “small package” with coffees/teas, your candy bar with your logo on it, perhaps a personalized pen, and of course, several business cards. Drop it off at new businesses in your area. How about the doctor that just changed locations or the new attorney that just graduated law school? You can send these out as well and are not confined to local clients.

Magnets are excellent marketing tools. VistaPrints offers them at very reduced prices and they match your business card. I send one along to all my clients and in my portfolio to clients who have already expressed an interest in my services. This just adds that additional promotional edge I feel.

Tip #4 – Market to Your Existing Clients: Your existing clients already know the caliber of work that you do. But your marketing doesn’t have to stop there. Continually tell them of new services or features. Send out a newsletter or even a tip of the week to keep your name in front of them. And when was the last time you called them up and asked, “Hey, how are you doing? How’s business going?” A personal, “What’s been happening” call can make a very favorable impression

Tip #5 – List Tips on Your Website: One of the ways to prove your expertise is to list on your website the things you know. This shows your clients and potential clients that you know what you are talking about. On both my sites I have done this with great success. On Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com, I also include a complete listing of resources as well so others can find information on my site that they need. This draws them to my site and while there hopefully makes them want to do business with me.

Market your way to success in your business! See how doing things a little differently can make a big difference. And lastly, enjoy your marketing. When clients see that you enjoy what you’re doing, they want to do business with you.