by Liz Clark | May 19, 2016 | Business Matters, Communication, Leadership, Personal Development
A dream is what may be described in leadership circles as “vision.” Vision is something you can SEE clearly in your mind’s eye…before it is “real” in the real world. The mark of a great dreamer – of a visionary – is the ability to see things no one else can see. The catch is – making your own dream “come true” – making it “real” in the real world requires the help and support of other people. But, if you’re envisioning something that doesn’t exist yet…other people won’t understand how to support you. Until you inspire them to see it, too. As the leader of your dream, it falls to you to share your vision in a way that other people can believe in. But, explaining something that doesn’t exist yet can be hard. I’ve worked with visionaries and big-picture thinkers for many years. Without fail, I’ve seen great visionary leaders grow frustrated at one point or another with the “team” of people they surround themselves with as they try to bring their vision to reality. Some push through this frustration and succeed. Others allow the frustration to become the focus and their vision is never fully realized. The single difference between those who are successful with leading their vision into reality and those who are not – is their ability to inspire others to “see” and understand their vision, too. So, how can you help others see what you see? Understand What You Really Want: Vision answers the question, “What do I want?” That’s a hard question to answer, and its even harder to answer when your mood changes. Spend some...
by Liz Clark | Apr 14, 2016 | Business Matters
If you’re an online entrepreneur, you know the marketing buzzwords: Create a lead-magnet with a landing page Build a list through permission marketing Pay for traffic via advertising Post a thousand times a day on social media Create a sales funnel Write SEO-rich blog posts Start a podcast Use swipe files Get videos ranked on YouTube Do free webinars The list is endless. A lot of these tactics make sense. I’ve considered all of them and tried most of them. But, can I be real for a minute? After having a lot of success in the brick-and-mortar business world, I was really discouraged to find that running a business online is a HECK of a lot harder than all those fancy gurus make it out to seem. You’ve seen the Facebook ads where all the professional model slash “entrepreneurs” are having a blast making money poolside with their perfect, white smiles and their 22-year-old abs, right? I tried taking my laptop outside once to “enjoy my freedom” while working in the sunshine. Within 7 minutes, I had a headache from squinting, the dog was barking like a maniac and bird poop landed right next to me on the deck. It’s not as glamorous as the well-placed stock photos would lead you to believe. But, I’d trade glamour in a heartbeat for an online marketing system that actually worked. I tried a ton of them. But, eventually, I had to come to terms with the harsh reality: None of those online marketing tactics had resulted in sales. Zero. Ouch. For a while, I thought I just needed more “training” on...
by Liz Clark | Mar 31, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development, Pursuits
I paced the floor…teeth clenched. I was wrestling with a HUGE decision. For the first time in many years, I was working as an employee. Decent salary. Benefits. 401K. Stock options. But, looming in front of me was an opportunity to make the leap from “secure” employee to running my own business. I had done my homework on this new venture, and the numbers all made sense. It was a lucrative opportunity. But, I couldn’t stop thinking the same thoughts, over and over: What if it doesn’t work out? What if my clients don’t pay on time and we fall behind on our bills? What if I SUCK at this new business and my clients cancel my contracts? Those questions were just different versions of the BIG question: What if I’m not good enough to do this? It was a risk. But, I saw a problem in the market that I was excited about solving. Fast forward: I took the risk and launched out on my own as a consultant. I didn’t fail. We never fell behind on our bills. In fact, I earned more money than I had ever earned before. In retrospect, I see that the time I spent wondering if I was “good enough” was a waste of time. Those feelings didn’t help me make a decision. They only caused me to get stuck in “analysis paralysis.” In my case, I took the risk. But, many people miss out on incredible opportunities because they’re too preoccupied feeling “not good enough.” Most of my business coaching clients have fantastic new ideas, products or scalable strategies they want to try…but they’re stuck. The questions I hear these already-successful entrepreneurs struggling with are:...
by Liz Clark | Mar 24, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development
“I need to make a deposit,” I said out loud to an empty apartment. I sat on the floor at the foot of my bed with papers spread all around me. Bank statements, receipts, a checkbook, a notebook where I kept track of my “budget.” A curly landline phone cord stretched across the room from its normal spot beside my bed. I punched numbers into the handset, hoping the robot voice on the other end of the line would help me. I was close to overdrawing my bank account. Again. This was a common scene for me in college, in the dark ages before online banking. In fact, this was a common scene for me for the first 10 years of my adult life. Back then, I treated my bank account like a demanding, hungry teenager. It seemed like no matter how much I fed it, it always needed more. I spent my waking hours trying to figure out how to make sure it didn’t get completely empty or worse – overdrawn. It was a constant cycle of stress. I felt like a slave to my monthly expenses. Then, I began learning about the concept of investment. An investment is when you make a different kind of deposit. Not one to cover this month’s spending, but a deposit you plan not to spend. At least not for a long time. Why on earth would someone deposit money and not spend it? So that the money you invest can multiply…and you (or your kids) can spend some of it in the future. This concept of investment began to invade every area of my...
by Liz Clark | Mar 7, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development, Pursuits
We all use excuses from time to time in our lives. The “no excuses” movement is unrealistic and dismissive. So, what are excuses and why do we all make them? Do they actually PROTECT us? When do excuses go from being a socially acceptable way to communicate boundaries…to something much more...
by Liz Clark | Mar 3, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development
Imagine for a moment a society without structure. Try to imagine the chaos if: Schools didn’t have set start and end times and there were no bells or buzzers to signal everyone to go to their next class. (A dream come true for many kids!) Grocery stores didn’t organize food into categories and didn’t keep regular “hours.” Banks didn’t have procedures for depositing and withdrawing money. Traditional jobs didn’t assign work to employees, never set schedules or coordinated efforts to achieve the company’s objectives. “Developed” societies are built on structure and lots of it. In fact, without structure, we’re often at a loss as to how to behave. Think about it. From the moment you were born, through school, jobs, and every day society – you were given external structure “cues” that helped you understand how to behave, what to do and even where to be at what time. At some point in your life, you’ll likely try do something big on your own – like start a business, write a book or invent something. You think it’s going to be exciting (and it is), but suddenly… There’s no one there to tell you where to be. There’s no one with a textbook on how to write your book or make your invention a success. You no longer “get in trouble” for being late because suddenly… you’re the boss. The problem with a structure-obsessed society is that structure is usually developed for us. We aren’t taught how to create structure for ourselves. We’ve been given a fish sandwich with a side of fries…instead of being taught how to fish,...
