February 7-13 is National Coaching Week (NCW), where coaches from around the world celebrate the wonders of coaching.  NCW was created as National Personal and Business Coaching Week by Jerri Udelson in 1999 as a way to promote the profession of coaching. In 2000, coaches in Canada wanted to take part, so the name was changed to NCW, and the International Coach Federation (ICF) started to promote it.

ICW is a designated time for coaches and clients to educate the general public about the value of working with a professional coach and to acknowledge the results and progress made through the coaching process. During this extended commemoration, coaches around the world offer a variety of activities and pro bono services in their local communities to share what coaching has the ability to do. For more information about ICW, visit www.coachingweek.org.

Have you experienced coaching, yet? If you haven’t, you are really missing out!

I still remember when I started investigating coaching. I started attending teleclasses like they were going out of style, met my first coach in one of those classes, and not only did I learn a great deal (about coaching, about myself), but met some incredible coaches! This was also when I made the decision to BECOME a coach, and thus coach people from wherever I happened to be at the moment! It meant working while traveling, which combined my two loves. Since then, I have coached clients from my home, from cruise ships, from Zurich, Jamaica and even Rome.

What is the value of coaching?

• Coaching helps successful people accomplish more sooner. That’s really it in a nutshell.
• Or, as the ICF puts it: “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. “
• Coaching provides you with the questions you can’t ask yourself, or family and friends can’t ask, in an objective way.
• Coaching helps you really see or hear yourself as someone else does. It can open your eyes to awarenesses and perspectives that hadn’t occurred to you, helping you move past obstacles to achieving your goals.

To celebrate, my offer is a free, 30-minute coaching session during that week and a free article on business structures. But you have to contact me soon, because these spots WILL fill up quickly! To contact me to set up an appointment for your free session, you can call me at 909-867-7317 or email me to margie@meg-enterprises.com. I work with health, fitness and service professionals who wish to start or grow a business.

You can accomplish great things with coaching! If you haven’t tried it, now is the time. And give me a call to try it!

Margie

MEG Enterprises provides business coaching services to health, fitness and service professionals who wish to take their business dreams to the next level. As author of the book, “Just Jump: The No-Fear Business Start-up Guide for Health and Fitness Professionals”, President Marjorie Geiser helps clients do the introspective work that is often ignored, which then leads to lack of movement in accomplishing business goals.

Through the years, I’ve honed my speaking skills to the point where today organizations contact ME. But this wasn’t always the case.

To celebrate “Speak up and Succeed Day”, which is January 22, I’d like to share six strategies to grow your own speaking career, that have worked for me. Although you can follow any order with these, this may be the best progression to follow:

1. Join Toastmasters. Before I joined Toastmasters (TM), I thought I was pretty good at presenting. What I learned was that I had a LONG way to go! I learned how to use the stage, how to use my voice, how to use timing. I learned things I never would have learned on my own. And the most amazing thing about TM is that after every speech, someone comes up and gives an evaluation speech on YOUR speech! I still remember the first presentation I gave after joining TM: It was at a national conference, with an audience of around 700 people. In my mind, as I’m using the stage, my mind was running through all I had learned from my weekly TM meetings. I was a different person on that stage than ‘before TM’. Today I feel I’m just a rookie, although I have much more experience under my belt.
2. Speak, speak, and speak. They say practice makes perfect, and with speaking to audiences, this couldn’t be truer. Contact local organizations and offer to give free, short presentations, speak at every meeting at your TM club. Learn how audiences react to certain stories; learn what you are best at, etc. The more you speak, the more confidence you build up, too. Every new presentation I give provides me with clues about what worked and didn’t work, so I’m able to refine my message for the next time.
3. Determine your rates. Certainly when you start speaking, you may not really know what to charge. And speaking at local community groups isn’t going to grow your income. BUT, if you plan to include speaking as one of your revenue streams, you need to include it in your business plan as you outline your services and products. Do your research: What do others charge? Who is your target audience and how will you reach them? With speaking, perceived value DOES come with your rates, so plan accordingly. When I started, I was happy if someone would just PAY me! But I have to admit that I did a lot of ‘pro bono’ work. When I was asked for my rates early in my speaking career, I was really stumped, because I hadn’t thought it through ahead of time.
4. Learn how to negotiate. Often a new speaker will be contacted by an organization and asked what their fees are. Unfortunately, the person gives a pat answer, without opening the door for negotiations! So, high on the list should be how to negotiate.  Keep the door open, be clear what your own expectations are, and keep the discussions honest.
5. Create a platform. A common mistake that many new speakers make is thinking they have to create TONS of presentations! But probably the best piece of advice I could offer would be focus on what your core message is and create presentations on that. For me, it’s that with vision and planning, anything is possible. Because I work primarily with service professionals who want to start a business, much of what I speak on has to do with what it takes to get that business out of your head and into reality. The best book on this topic is “Made to Stick” by the Heath brothers, because they emphasize the importance of being clear around your one core message.
6. Get it on tape. How can potential clients know how great you are if you can’t give them a piece of what you do? This is probably one of the hardest things to work on, but definitely can make the difference between an amazing opportunity or being passed over for the next speaker, who DOES have a video available. My suggestion is to spend time researching who has videos online and watch them. Then find any way possible to get your work recorded and put out to the world. Afterall, if you can’t tell the world what’s great about you,  how will they know?

If you dream of becoming a popular, well-paid speaker, start telling people your dream! We have to ask for what we want. Thus, today is, again, “Speak up and Succeed Day,” so get out there and speak up!

To learn more about public speaking, I have two resources for you. Come visit my page here to visit CharliJane Speaker Services. While there, if you scroll down to where it says articles written by me, you will get MANY more than just my articles! I recommend it for any aspiring speaker.

The second resource is for dietitians who would like to not only learn more about speaking, but also earn some CPE’s. Featuring professional speaker Marilyn Jess, we offer a 3-part home study course called SpeakUp RD.

And, above it all, get out there!
Margie

Did you know it was your month? It sure is! It is “Reach your potential” month!

I believe that there is greatness in every single one of us. Zig Zigler is great at telling stories about ordinary people accomplishing great things.

Why not you?

Before you can live up to your potential greatness, however, you have to be clear what you’d like to create! What is your vision for your life? What legacy would you like to leave behind? What would you like colleagues and family members to say about you when you’re gone? Close your eyes and imagine: If there were no fear of failure, what would you do? There’s your vision, your legacy, your greatness.

So I’ll ask the question again: What do you imagine doing in your life? The next question can sometimes be even tougher, though: Are you working towards what you imagine?

I present you with a challenge:

• If you are working towards your dream, step higher. Do what you still think you cannot do. Just one step is all it takes to get started.
• If you have not started working towards what you imagine, take that first step, today! It might be something as simple as writing it down.

As you take those steps, envision reaching your potential. See it, sit down and perform a ‘mental simulation’ of what it looks like. Break it down into what you will do, today, so that you can gradually look back and celebrate reaching your potential this month, the first month of the year!

Margie

If you need help reaching your potential, or even figuring out what it IS, contact Margie to see if her coaching services are for you. You can email her at margie@meg-enterprises.com, or visit her website at http://www.meg-enterprises.com for more information.

This is “Own your Share of America” month. What are YOU doing to own your share of the world?

We are on this Earth for a very short period of time. And, we have a choice: We can sit back and let life move on around us. OR, we can take charge. Today we will address how you can take charge, and own your share of America (or any part of the world!) while doing it!

The most rewarding thing for me is to watch the transition in a person who moves from doubt and uncertainty to an empowered, focused and self-confident business professional. They have moved from spectator to owning a share of their world!

How did they do it, and how can you do it?

1.    First, you need to uncover your vision. What do you want to create? Who do you want to be known as? What legacy do you want to leave behind?

2.    Second, you must be clear who your ideal client is. What makes that person tick and what are their motivating factors? You must get to know them better than they know themselves in order to effectively speak to them and attract them to you.

3.    Finally, you must discover what makes you unique. What is your unique essence? You must be able to SEE your uniqueness so you can capitalize on it. As always say, if YOU can’t tell the world what’s great about you, how will they know?

These are the three essentials to developing clarity, focus and self-confidence. But the icing on the cake comes when you combine these essentials with the planning. Commitment to your goals and objectives through writing them down, and then the creation of strategies and tactics to develop action plans, results in you owning your own share of America!

If you struggle with these three essentials, contact me for a complementary, 30-minute coaching session to see if coaching can help move you forward.

Isn’t it time for you to claim YOUR share of America?

Margie

January 19 is the birthday of Janis Joplin. She was born in 1943 and if alive today would be 67 years old. I could just see her now! She would be among the ranks of Willie Nelson or Mick Jaggar, still struttin’ her stuff.

If you’re not familiar with Janis Joplin, she was a popular rock singer in the late 1960s. She started as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and eventually went off on her own. Listening to Janis was like watching lighting flash. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Janis #46 of the 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2008, they listed her as 28 of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

What was it about Janis that helped her gain this status? Was it her singing talent? Oh, although I’m a HUGE fan, I have to say no. It was her passion! I’m not kidding when I say it was like watching lightening flash when she sang. She put everything she had into her performances.

If you have ever seen or heard Janis sing, you know she’s unlike anyone else before or after her. She was an original. She was HERSELF. The message? Be yourself! Live big, risk big! The rewards generally are as big as the risk. If we don’t risk in our lives, we won’t see the results we dream of seeing.

What must YOU risk in order to live the life you imagine? If you are living that life right now, what’s next??

January 11 is national “Clean off your desk day.” Are you ready?

The problem with a messy office, or computer (like emails and files), is it clutters the mind, which leads to such things as decreased creativity, decreased organization, and even perhaps lost items, from important correspondence to bills that didn’t get paid!

I’ve discussed this before, and I don’t think it can be addressed too much, from the feedback I get! You have to get organized! And what better time than during “Clean off your desk day”!

So let’s get down to business. Here are steps to help you turn that desk, and computer, into something that helps you enjoy your day, instead of dread coming into your office.

1. Do you have piles? Pick just one, pull out some new file folders, and do as David Allen suggests: Create names for these files, such as ‘articles to read’ or ‘articles for ideas’, or even ‘misc’. However, determine what action you must do, and then do it. With EVERY item, do something with it. If it’s really old, you can probably even …. augh! TOSS it!
2. Are you a post-it junkie? Chances are, if you are, you’re not looking at many of those post-its. Spend just 5 minutes, right now, looking at all your post-its and ask yourself if you plan to take action on each one. Those that are old, toss. (This does NOT apply to affirmation post-its, but that’s for another topic.)
3. Set aside some time to continue to organize. It only needs to be a few minutes, actually. Think about it; if you have been printing up items, or saving great articles, and they accumulate into a pile, if you spent 5 minutes a day looking through what you’ve accumulated, and taking an ACTION on each, you will feel very accomplished and organized! And those items won’t be pulling at your mind, dragging you down.
4. TOSS! Yea, there’s that word again. I used to keep all my journals so I could read them, ‘when I had time’. Ha! Naturally, as they accumulated, I felt worse and worse. They dragged at my brain! I was afraid I’d miss something important. But then my coach at the time pointed out that IF I needed information on a particular topic, I could easily find that info online! Plus, once these journals and magazines get a certain age, they’re old news!
5. Another tip from David Allen is to clean your email inbox to zero. Have you done that yet? That’s MY challenge for you for January! And let me know how it goes for you. It’s extremely liberating. However, then you have to stay ON it.

These are just a few tips. If you do a search for “clean off your desk day”, you’ll find many more tips! But here’s why it’s important:

You want to be as successful as you can. And you want to ENJOY your success! This means the mind must be at ease. If things are cluttered around you, your mind clutters. And it constantly is thinking/dreading that clutter. And although you may think you live in it just fine, you also worry that you might be missing something. And you COULD be, too! But the worst thing you’re missing is the chance to enjoy your business and your uncluttered mind.

Margie

MEG Enterprises, Inc

I’m reading the book, “Made to Stick” by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath in order to enhance my presentations for 2010. But the information really applies to ANYONE with a business! There are many things to share as a result of this book, but today I’d like to discuss the power of visualizations.

As a coach, I embraced “The Secret” when it came out, and I’ve put much of what I learned from it into play with great success. And I totally believe in the law of attraction. Also, as a coach, I practice, myself, and encourage clients to practice, affirmations for what we want to create in our lives.

Today as I read about “mental simulation” in the Heath book, I was curious to see if I could duplicate what they discussed, so I put it into practice, with incredible success. I have to say that I’ll do it again, tomorrow, and I can see how this will become a habit to diligently practice for the future. I can see that with mental simulation, anything really IS possible! (Yea, you DO need the planning, but it’s included, as you’ll see.) It’s not that I’ve never done this, but I’m more of a ‘list’ person, myself.

So what is mental simulation and how is that different than affirmations or just positive thinking? And what makes me believe that this may have validity?

• First, what I like about the Heath book is that these two authors are educators and do have science to back up some of the things they discuss, this being one of them.
• In the chapter on Stories (yea, seems unrelated, but bear with me), they describe a study of UCLA students who were asked to think about something minor that was stressing them out. One group received a brief instruction on problem solving. A second group received instructions to simulate the event and retrace their specific steps that lead to the problem. The third group was told to simulate the event as if it was resolved. Which do you think was most effective? Grin: I’m not going to tell you, yet, but if you want to read more about this study, here is the link to the abstract; http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/12/1451 .
• Next in the chapter, the authors shared a review study of 35 studies of over 3,000 participants, where they practiced mental simulation. They found that mental simulation could provide up to 2/3rds the benefit of the actual activity. To read this study, go to this link; http://web.rollins.edu/~jdriskell/mentalpractice.pdf.

So, what’s the point? Let me tell you the story of what I did and how you can use this information to enhance your success:

Today, after reading this chapter, I decided to put this all into play. This isn’t anything REAL different, but, as I said,  I usually write down lists of things to do. There are times where they aren’t the most motivating or effective, however. So I closed the book, closed my eyes and asked myself what it was I wanted to accomplish the rest of the day. I walked myself through each task I wished to accomplish, seeing myself doing it. I even included a time-line, as there were things I wanted to do at a certain time.

The result? I was much more focused, I was on schedule for all my tasks, and I accomplished every single thing I had included in my visualization!

Oh, the result of the UCLA study was that the kids who simulated the event that caused the problem were much more successful at resolving their problem than those who simulated the event as if it was solved! So much for positive visualizations, huh? This doesn’t mean give them up, but it does put a new light on things.

So, close your eyes after reading this and walk yourself through what you’d like to accomplish. Imagine you’re really doing it and what might come up that could get in your way. I will warn you about one thing, however: Do not try to OVER-do your list of accomplishments! In fact, if you’re not sure about how this will all turn out, why not just pick a few items to work on? Start small!

As we head into a new year, imagine if you could accomplish all the things you have set up for yourself. But did you find yourself getting bogged down at all last year? I hear many people do. If you could improve your outcomes by performing one action, such as mental simulation, where you even visualize the roadblocks, imagine the successes you would enjoy in 2010! Wow, it’s going to be an amazing year!

Margie