Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Cara Lumen

High Branding

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by Cara Lumen

I’ve coined a new phrase, “High Branding” because finding your high branding position makes everything fall easily into place. Let me explain.

As an entrepreneur I can do a lot of things, just like you. As an entrepreneur I have a hard time narrowing my niche to a small enough target audience to be effective. Just like you.

I had all sorts of labels within the structure of my business because I wanted people to know all that I did and I didn’t want to miss any income opportunities. Does this sound familiar? I had different names for my internet marketing coaching, for my copy writing services, for my web content strategy and design, for my expert status development program and for signature product development. As hard as I tried to make my offerings clear, my services page on my web site was a mess. It contained way too many choices for the potential client and it was still only me doing my thing – or my things, if you will.

But less is more. I knew that but I couldn’t find it.

Look without

I began to notice two things: what my clients were asking me to do for them, and what skills and talents I was using to answer their needs. I wanted my niche to find me.

For years I have kept an Acknowledgement List. It helps me see myself as others see me. I began to look over testimonials and acknowledgements people had sent me. I began to see what they saw in me that I might not be seeing in myself. That began to give me some ideas, but it was the conscious look within that helped me find my High Brand.

Look within

I have been gifted with the ability to cut to the core of a concept—to distill from a conversation what is at the heart of the sharing. I found that while I was listening to the myriad of ideas my clients had, I could effortlessly identify and pull forward the essence of their vision. Then I was able to offer them a zillion ideas to bring their vision to life. I began to label myself “The Vision Distiller.” And all that I was doing began to fall easily under that umbrella. It didn’t matter if we were creating web sites, or learning to write articles, or creating signature products, it was all about helping people bring their vision to life and take it out into the world.

What a relief! All my efforting fell away. All need to explain the details of what I do disappeared. My high intention, my overall purpose is to help people express their vision—whatever form it takes.

I created a new web site, changed my tag lines, and came to rest under the umbrella of a High Brand.

How can you find your High Brand? How can you get to the core of what you offer?

Be Patient

It took me three years to arrive at this new awareness, so first of all be patient. And allow it to emerge organically as you go about placing yourself in deep service.

Keep an Acknowledgement List

What started as an Acknowledgement List years ago is now my testimonial collection, but it also contains complimentary emails that people have sent me along the way. I use it regularly to find copy phrases for promoting my products and services. And they usually make me feel good too.

Redo your business plan on a regular basis

Every time I redo my business plan and have to redefine my target audience and describe the problem I solve and the benefits I offer them, my brand gets stronger. I discover new words and phrases that express how I currently feel about my work. Redo your business plan at least once a year as a checkup and an opportunity to reposition yourself. Notice how far you have come, be aware of how you have changed, see if you can narrow your target audience, and identify what your clients are asking for. Then pay attention to what you find and see how you can adjust your business to increase your effectiveness.

Write a Resource Box

A resource box is added when we submit articles, but the exercise of finding the most compelling words to capture the essence of your business in three lines or so is very revealing. I have about ten resource boxes that I have used along the line and I keep rearranging phrases as my own awareness grows. Keep honing and polishing the words and phrases you use to attract people to your offerings.

Look for the Umbrella

What title can you give yourself that says it all? I helped one of my clients brand herself as “The Unstoppable Confidence Coach” and another has become “The Marketing Mentor”. One client has a product to help people increase their brain power. I suggested she might become “The Brain Coach.” But when she told me her target market was boomers, my suggestion was she become “The Boomer Brain Coach.” That ought to get her some attention.

Look for a memorable title that incorporates who are and what you do. Look for the core service you give, what others continually ask you to provide, the highest benefit others receive and see what emerges. That’s how you discover your own High Branding.

©2007 Cara Lumen

The Case of the Curled Bark

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by Cara Lumen

It lay curled on the ground beside the tree it had served, beautiful even as it moved into uselessness. I noticed it on my walk and was drawn to pick it up; looking for the message it might hold for me.

It comes from a Crape Myrtle tree—a tree that blooms late in the summer and grows by adding beautiful flowers in shades of red on the tips of each branch, These flowers then become the branches for next year’s growth. It is also s a tree that gracefully lets go of the old.

The bark was on the ground because the tree had expanded and split if off. It has completed its work. I’m certain it had done its work well, protecting the inner tree, but it no longer fit. If it had stayed in place, the tree could not grow.

What do I have in place that is keeping me from growing? How have I expanded and what do I need to allow to split off? What no longer fits into my vision, my plan, my passion?

It was the message I sought.

I’ve had several opportunities lately to move backward—take up services I used to offer but have outgrown. That’s why the idea of doing them again held no appeal—I had outgrown them. I am in a different mind set. I have new skills I love to use more. I have new ideas I wasn’t to express. Why would I ever entertain the thought of moving backward?

Sometimes we are offered choices in order to fortify our determination to move forward.

What has changed for you? What are you willing to do? What activities and interactions bring you joy? But more importantly, what are you no longer willing to do? What needs to drop away, just as the bark has dropped from the tree it once served.

From moment to moment we are different. We gain new insights with every interaction. We find new adventures that excite us. And we cannot go on the new adventures unless we stop carrying the old stuff around. We cannot move forward as long as we are holding on to old beliefs and habits. We cannot grow without holding new expectations.

The Crape Myrtle tree adds new growth in the form of beautiful flowers, just as add new aspects to your life as you open up to new experiences. But in doing so, the tree outgrows its skin, its bark, and releases and discards what it no longer needs.

What do you need to release?

The Joy of Completing

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by Cara Lumen

The only reason I get to talk about the joy of completion is because I took over a year to do the final editing on some teleclasses I had recorded and it is now done and I AM JOYOUS!!!!

Isn’t it amazing how long we can put off something that will give us as much joy and satisfaction as completion? I can’t tell you how many half started (or is it half finished) e-books I have. And when I rediscover them I always find I’m a lot further along than I thought.

I wonder what made me stop. It was probably that something else popped to the top of my completion list, or I found something totally new and exciting to explore. And things pop to the top because they needed. So perhaps it’s simply that their time has come.

But back to the joy of completion. When I finished my first CD cover, and had that jewel case sitting on my desk it was a thrill. When I complete an e-book and make the sales page and post it in my shopping cart I am ecstatic.

Why do we neglect completion? Why do we put it off when it feels so good?

You know, it doesn’t have to be a very big completion in order to count. Hey, taking the notes that are all over my desk and putting them into my Quick List is a win. Listening to a downloaded teleclass I’ve been meaning to get to gives me satisfaction and new knowledge. Taking a moment to organize the files on my hard drive should be properly celebrated. And making a new mind map of my next steps demands a pat on the back.

Yes, I have a “To Do” list. I call it my “Quick List.” It stays open on my computer and every idea I have goes on it. It has a section for article and e-book ideas, things to do to strengthen my web site, phrases I like, links to remember and next steps to take. It holds a calendar with the phone numbers of the teleclasses I plan to take, my coaching schedule and my “Do Today” list. So keeping track is not the problem. But sometimes completing is.

I think it’s time for sticky notes. What if, at the end of each day, I acknowledged myself for something I had completed and write it down? Hopefully the number of sticky notes could become quite decorative. At the end of the week I would read them over and bask in the joy of completion. I would really take time to acknowledge myself and feel how good it is to have moved forward through completion. Then I would clear the decks and start fresh for the upcoming week.

My coaching clients are usually entrepreneurs with a lot of ideas. Part of my job is to get them to focus on one idea, complete it and then choose a next step. Often I meet with resistance. Not intentionally, just because they are excited about so many things and want to do them all. Do you know that feeling?

If you run around with a lot of half completed aspects of your business you will never feel like you are making any forward motion. On your calendar, schedule specific times to work your business. It may be to write articles or research potential radio interviews or it may be to invoice work you have completed. If you don’t set aside time to work your business every week you will stay at exactly the place you are now. And if you don’t complete a few steps each week you are simply dog paddling to stay afloat.

Completion is tied into commitment. And commitment works wonders. Commitment lines up all manner of magical gifts from the universe in the form of tools we need, people we need to speak to, and circumstances that offer new opportunities.

Sometimes I don’t complete because what’s left to do is not very interesting. It’s much more fun to create something new than edit something you’ve already done, or write the thank you page for your web site, or set up a new product in your shopping cart. But it is tying up those final ends that is the icing on the cake. Don’t let a project go uncompleted because of three things on your “To Do” list that will take you 20 minutes to complete. You are robbing yourself of the great pleasure of completion.

I know that part of my non-completion is because of bumping other things to the top of the list. And maybe they do need to be bumped up. Maybe they are more of a priority. Perhaps I can focus on celebrating what I do complete rather than what remains to be done.

What we focus on we attract more of. If I focus on completion, and if I celebrate each success, I know that I will find myself completing more and more…..and more.

On Striving

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by Cara Lumen
 

I am currently in a fallow period of rest and completion. I am replenishing and restoring. It feels like I’m not "doing" enough. It feels like not enough is happening, that somehow I am failing because I’m not very busy.

 But I know it is a natural time for self-healing. It is a time for self-contemplation and examining the evidence of what my thoughts and actions have created for me. It is a time to make new choices—focus on what is working, tweak or release what is not. This could mean people or actions or beliefs. It is a time for going within and listening. It is about creating and honoring my new rhythm.

 As I look for answers for myself, I am writing about them in my next e-book. How do I balance the “leave-it-to-me” aspect of the Law of Attraction with the “here’s-what-you-do-to-succeed” mentality of the physical plane? Do I do? Or don’t I do?

 Then this came in my e-mail

 “I said, "Yes!" when you first thought of "it".

"Now!" when you first asked.

And, "Hallelujah! So be it! Coming right up!" when you first gave thanks in advance…

 

Believing in you,

—The Universe  http://www.tut.com/mmm.shtml )

All I have to do is think it, ask for it, give thanks in advance and allow it to show up.

 That’s easy.

 So, should I bother to worry? I don’t think so?

 Should I watch for signs and signals? Absolutely, I love signs.

 Should I be patient? Yes indeed.

 Should I act on and respond to the offerings that appear? If they feel right I’ll do it. If they don’t, I’ll simply pass. But if I do pass, I will look carefully to see why I pass it up and what I might learn from it if I accepted the challenge.

 Dig the Ditch Before the Water Comes

 Some of the actions I seem to be taking are in preparation for “what if” and “when” what I plan to happen does happen. A friend likened it to digging the ditch before the water comes. Am I prepared to receive? Is the container I am holding out as big as I wish it to be? Do I need to make my thoughts grander, my vision bigger, my expectations higher?

 Probably. I think we all too often expect too little.

 Do I Value Myself Enough To Let The Good Stuff In?

 Am I worthy to receive? Do I deserve it? Will I accept it? Get yourself out of the way and be prepared to step up and give yourself in service wherever you are called. Watch for the unexpected. Watch for the small subtle suggestions. Smile at what you are given. Celebrate your wins. Give thanks for all you are and all that is given you.

 Give Gratitude In Advance

 I like the idea of giving gratitude for what is going to happen before it happens. How lovely it feels to give gratitude for attracting wonderful new clients. How vibrant I feel as I give gratitude for losing more weight. How loved and cherished I feel as I give gratitude for the deepening of my friendships.

 Immerse yourself in the feelings of completion when you offer your gratitude. Enjoy what it feels like to be or do what you desire. Get excited to receive.

 Expect It to Happen

 That’s pretty much it. No striving, no efforting. Just feel it happening and expect it to happen. Allow life to be effortless and rewarding and it will.

Digging the Ditch before the Water Comes

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by Cara Lumen

What do you need to put in place to prepare for growth? How deep a ditch do you have to dig right now to prepare for the wonderful flood of prosperity that is coming?

In Ideas of Power, Ernest Holmes says, “We measure things with too small a measure; the infinite ocean is beside us, and we dip it up with a thimble.”

How big is the vessel you are holding up to be filled?

Team Building

One thing you will want to do is build your team, even if it only means to locate them. Find the perfect web designer, get a great content strategy coach, identify your proofreader, list the resources you will need and where to find them, find your audio engineer, figure out who you could hire to post articles for you, see who you would like as a virtual assistant. You may need several VA’s with different specialties.

Equipment

What equipment do you need? My investment in editing software gave me the freedom to record and edit my podcasts and my audio-books. My upgrade in my drawing program helps me design my own covers and audio jacket covers. The set up in my office supports my productivity.

Training

 What training do you need for your next step? This year I’ve taken classes in podcasting and radio publicity. Last year it was blogs and screen capturing software. Now I’m exploring video.

Organization

What organizational systems do you need to set up? What contacts do you need to establish? What skills do you need to hone? Write them down and start doing them. If there is a momentary lull, even better, get busy and build your foundation.

Throw away what no longer serves and make room for more of what does. Set yourself up for an explosion of business. That’s digging the ditch before the water comes.

What do you need to do to be ready for your BIG VISION to fall into place?