Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Positive Change

How to Make Stuff Happen

By

by Cara Lumen

check-listI first became aware of an easy way to make stuff happen when I became a Reiki Master Teacher in New York City years ago. I had come back from being Certified, I was ready to teach and my thought was “how do I make this happen?” Then I realized I simply had to make it up – just the way I wanted it to be. So I picked up my calendar and started writing in dates for first degree classes and second degree classes – allowing enough time for there to be two first degree classes before there was a second degree class. That’s it. That’s the big secret. Simply schedule it.

Keep it realistic

I recently was asked to provide a whole year of training for a membership site. It involves 12 introductory calls on topics of interest that would introduce the upcoming six three-week telecourse. First I decided on the six telecourses, then I thought of topics that would lead into them. I picked a date on the calendar to begin and I had my schedule.

Then it occurred to me that if I’m preparing all of this material for a closed community I needed to find a way to leverage all the work into value for my own community. So once again, I pulled out my calendar and scheduled three teleclasses for the first half of the year accompanied by some free intro teleclasses to be offered to my own community. I made longer classes out of shorter ones and repurposed intro talks for the two communities.

And that’s when I begin to feel full up. The schedule looks great. I love to write teleclasses. And that’s a lot of work over a long period of time. As you make up your schedule be realistic about what you can do. Remember, scheduling it is only half the fun.

Schedule plenty of time to create the product

Fortunately I’m working two and a half months ahead on the teleclasses so I’m having a great time creating the courses because I’m not pressured. And I’m expanding a six week course I will give in January into six three week courses for the membership site so the material will only grow richer. And it will all turn into a book at the end of the year. Leverage every idea you have. Repurpose. Chunk up. Chunk down. One idea can show up in a lot of different costumes just like an actor in a play. The actor it the same, the role is different.

I love to make stuff up and I never schedule my creative time so that I feel pressured. Allow yourself time to do your very best – to make the most stimulating handouts, to find the richest resources, to outline the most fascinating intro calls. Work steadily. Schedule time to create. Make a project management schedule so you get written what you need to write – steadily, without pressure. Mark off whole mornings or afternoons so you can concentrate and get your work done in a flow of deep concentration. Enjoy your own creative process.

Make a strong marketing plan for each event

For me the fun stuff is in making up the course or writing the book. But I have made a list of what I have to do surrounding each and every event or product launch. It’s a template I use for each project. I have four sections: Creation, Participant Emails, Publicity and Promotion. I work in Word with a column to check off when each step is completed. These are the steps I take for a teleclass that can be translated into any product launch. Here’s how it is set up:

CREATION

  • Write landing page (I do this first to clarify my intentions. I tweak it after the product is complete)
  • Autoresponders set up to reply to those who purchase or enroll
  • Buy now button set up for the product on the landing page
  • Write the first draft
  • Have the interactive elements completed (handouts for a class)
  • Create Power Points if used
  • Complete the second draft
  • Create Student Participation page on line (This is where I deliver the handouts and homework and MP3s. It is a web page for the participants)
  • Put the Student Participation Page up – it is complete and ready for the course
  • Create five emails to promote the event or product to send to my community and contacts who might help promote

CLASS INTERACTION

  • Write instructions to be sent to students three days before which includes call in number and any post course instructions
  • Write email reminder of the class starting to be sent the day before

PUBLICITY

I start actively promoting six weeks out. There is an Early Bird special with a deadline. But even before that I have been talking about the product in my blog posts and emagazine to begin to get people interested.

  • Add announcement of product or course to web site
  • Put the landing page up
  • Post event date on blog & web site
  • Write in newsletter
  • Write Media Questions out
  • Put out press release

PROMOTION

  • Email to my community of Book Yourself Solid Coaches with Early Bird Special and ask them to promote it to their communities. Send out email promotional copy to make it easy for them to promote. (I’m lucky to have this group who are willing to help each other. This is different than sending to my list. See if you can develop a community of colleagues with similar target audiences who will help you cross promote.)
  • Post on FaceBook
  • Post on Twitter
  • Write six blog post discussing aspects of course & post them as continuous reminders of the upcoming event
  • Get scheduled on some radio shows
  • Find some new JV partners for the project
  • Contact others in person who may not be on my list to see if they will promote
  • Comp a person or two into the class. That helps you have people who you know will participate and feels supportive. If an ebook, send out some advanced copies and ask for a review.
  • Ask for testimonials after the course or after the book has been read. Put those on your landing page or in the front of your book.

PUBLICITY TO MY LIST

Statistics now say that people need to hear of something 24 or more times before they will buy. That’s why I start mentioning that I am working on the product a few months out to start an awareness in my community. I can’t bring myself to flood my community with emails so I got with this schedule.

  • First announcement to email list – six weeks out
  • Second announcement to email list 5 weeks out
  • Third announcement to list – Early Bird ends tomorrow
  • Announce with emagazine
  • Starts tomorrow email out (You’d be surprised how many people this email adds to your event.)

It’s like having two separate projects – one to create the product or service, the other to launch it. As you work on your schedule add these promotional steps to your list and leave time to get them done.

Why I love to make stuff up

Every time I write a new ebook or create a new telecourse I learn something new. It may be that I write a better landing page and thus strengthen my skills at that. It may be that I deepen my own knowledge while deciding how I want to teach a certain point. And always it is about the joy of preparing something that will serve others – that will give them information that will make a difference, or motivate them to take a bigger next step, or inspire them to know they can do more.

If you have an idea it is probably yours to do. And if you choose to do it simply put it on your calendar and start talking about it in your blog posts and emagazine to start creating interest and to get yourself committed to the project. Then do it. That’s how to make stuff happen.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

You might also like:

 

Chunking Up For Progress

By

by Cara Lumen

build-businessIf we think in bigger chunks, we’ll feel better organized. Four big chunks are Plan. Prepare, Produce and Learn. Here’s how that might work.

Schedule a Planning Chunk

You need to take time to work on your business rather than in your business. This means quarterly contemplation about what’s working and what’s not and based on that what to release and what to keep.

You need a chunk of time to plan a new project – do your research, create an outline, write a landing page to focus your intention.

You need a chunk of time to plan the topics of your blog posts or article submission.

This is brain time. This is time you stop doing and allow yourself to feel and think and observe and choose. Put a planning chunk on your calendar. Putting it at the end of the week gives you time to acknowledge what you have accomplished and prioritize for the next week. Project planning can be scheduled any time. Again, you need to mark off several hours so you can really sink down into your ideas and pull out the best ones. Schedule planning time on your calendar in healthy sized weekly chunks.

Schedule a Preparation Chunk

You need time to prepare. This is the time you spend writing the landing page for your new product or service. It is time spent designing a cover for your ebook, or writing a new worksheet for your coaching practice. It can be about outlining a new course, designing handouts for it, figuring out bonuses and schedules. It’s about brainstorming blog topics and product ideas. It’s based on planning but it is about moving your projects forward.

Schedule a Production Chunk

I try to blog three times a week but I write them in one sitting and post them for the week so I just need one chunk of production time for the major part of my blog. It’s important to me so I do it Monday morning. I want to continue to post articles to www.ezinearticles.com so in this blog producing chunk I now make time to post at least one article on line. Adding one small step to an existing time chunk can keep you moving forward.

Part of my producing chunk is about leveraging – turning a teleclass into a home study course for instance. Or taking a radio script and making three articles out of it. Fleshing out my Cornerstone Content. Seeing if I have enough blog posts on a particular topic to create a new ebook. Putting existing ebooks on Kindle. You can see how you need a good chunk of production time each week.

Schedule a Learning Chunk

We need to keep learning. Schedule time to be on a conference call that will bring you new knowlege, read a business book, go exploring on the internet, or take a tutorial in a program you already use. I’m reading the revised version of Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid (I’m in it) and going to write a book review for Sharon Sayler’s What Your Body Says.” (I wrote the exercises) I want to order Mitch Meyerson’s “Success Secrets of the Social Media Superstars.” And I have several content development workbooks I want to study to enrich my “How to Craft a Magnetic Information Product” course. A learning chunk is vital to keep expanding our horizons. You should schedule a learning chunk every week.

Schedule daily Move Ahead time

What is important for you to accomplish this quarter? That is the one project you are going to focus on. Break it down into steps and schedule them on your calendar. Keep focusing on this one project till it is complete. It’s a Move Ahead Chunk on one outstanding project.

In my case it’s a content development course I am creating. My steps are:
1. Design the content, the experientials and the handouts
2. Decide how long the course must be
3. Decide what bonuses will go with it
4. Schedule the time to give it – allow time to begin marketing it 6 weeks out.
5. Write a landing page
6. Pick a price
7. Write the invitational emails that will precede it.
8. Expand the outline
9. Write the content
10. Produce the product
11. Promote the course

Some of this is planning, some preparing, some producing and some learning but you have to schedule 2-3 hour chunks of time for a Move Ahead time on a special project. This could be an information product, a new service, or even learning a new skill like more about video or audio. Mark off an afternoon to be creative. Then create. Give yourself chunks of time to plan, prepare, produce, learn and move ahead. Then notice how quickly your business takes off.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

You might also like:

 

How to Get More Done in Less Time

By

by Cara Lumen

magicianDo you ever get to the end of the day and feel you have gotten nothing done? Has a month gone by and you’re no further along on a project than you were? I’ll bet you can also list a zillion little things that you did that pulled you off target. Would you like a way to get more done in less time? Of even just get more done – period?

Look for the big picture

First of all you have to have a big picture. What is the over-all goal here? For instance, one of the things I set out to do beginning last fall was to strengthen my platform. I bought a great home study course and then didn’t start it. So I was beating myself up for that. Until I realized that my big objective was to strengthen my platform and I had 1) taken a blog course, 2) upleveled the number of blog posts to five a week, and 3) had subscribed to five blogs that will teach me more about blogging. And I had 4) invested in an SEO program to make the post stronger. And I 5) kept doing little things that the bloggers suggested I do. Oh yes, and I was having a great time with my radio show. (6) So guess what – I am working to improve my platform. I just haven’t taken that one particular course yet. I felt like improving my platform was going to ask me to confront some of the things that are not so easy for me and it still may be the case, but meanwhile, I’ve found my own way toward my goal and until I saw it as part of my big picture, I didn’t realize I had accomplished so much toward making it happen.

Know what your big objective is. Then stay open to how you reach it.

Chose and focus

Stay on target. Keep focused on what your big objective is and continue making choices around it. There are always exciting new ideas showing up but if I have decided in a thoughtful moment that my objective is to build my platform, then I must keep on making choices that further that goal. Leo Babauta in his book Zen Habits suggests we create only one significant work a year. Wouldn’t that be wonderful – just one significant work a year. Significant is the operative word here. Choose something that will make a difference in your business, in the lives of others, in the world. How would you feel if you could make that happen?

Leo goes on to suggest that we break that significant work into smaller projects. Life and business are really about doing one project at a time. Think how great it will feel to see the beginning, middle and end of a project. And the third suggestion in Zen Habits is to choose three tasks every day that will help you complete the project and do them – but only during your working hours.

Create uninterrupted attention spans

What do you consider your “working hours?” I know that when I sit down to write, time is suspended, I am totally engaged, I am excited and inspired and sometimes amazed at what shows up. Those are magical times and I don’t want them interrupted. I’m finding that during my morning meditation an idea often begins to form and if I move from there to my desk and start writing it is a continuation of my inner unfolding process. I don’t look at email, I don’t look at my action list, I just immerse myself in my thoughts and write. I had a friend with young children who got up at 5 AM to write her play in order to have uninterrupted inspiration time.

When is your best working time? Are you a first-thing-in-the-morning person? Then don’t schedule any meetings or phone calls then. Guard those times as sacred – the times you can focus on your significant work, the times you can contemplate your business goals and write them down, the time you can work on that information product that wants to go out and serve the world. It can be one hour or three. Let’s call it your Significant Work time. It’s a time when you only work on the projects that help complete your Significant Work.

Do not multitask. When you do several things at one time you are not truly enjoying any of the things you are doing. It’s very satisfying to take time to organize your desk but if you do it while on the phone with a friend, both your friend and you are short changed from the pleasure of total engagement. Whatever you are doing, do it will total absorption. Then you will be able to savor its completion.

Acknowledge yourself

Before you end your work day, make a short list of what you accomplished and how you feel about it. “I added two more exercises to my Idea Generator book and I’m very excited about how it is developing.” “I had a phone call from Voice of America Radio asking if I want to host a radio show there. It really stretched my vision of what is possible and opened up a lot of ideas and possibilities for me.” You get the picture, a short period of time to count your blessings if you will. To become aware of the signs and signals and opportunities that were provided and more importantly, what you felt about them and which ideas or conversations you may want to act upon. I have actually created a Magnetic Momentum Builder form that I use on a weekly bases to record these experiences and accomplishments. It helps me see that I am progressing and it also lets me decide how I feel about what I have done – or not yet done.

Choose a Significant Work, divide it into projects and only choose to do things that move those projects forward. When you are totally absorbed and engaged, the work is easily accomplished and time ceases to exist. And you will find you have gotten more done in less time.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

You may also like:

 

Is It Worth Doing?

By

by Cara Lumen

measureWe can sure get caught up in doing stuff. Mindless stuff, unimportant stuff, meaningless stuff. And we are really, really busy doing it. We even get tired at the end of our day from doing all that stuff. How do we stop the merry-go-round? How do we address the meaningful? How do we even identify what is important?

What’s the point?

What is your bottom line? What is the vision you hold and what are the most important steps you need to take to make that happen? There’s no point in writing an information product if you don’t have a web presence to promote it on. There’s no point in writing a teleclass unless you have spent time building a community who will be interested in taking it. There’s no point in writing blog posts unless you are really clear about the purpose of your blog and know what your target audience needs and wants from you.

Carefully evaluate the purpose of each project and how it fits into the larger picture. Put your foundation in place first, and then start building.

How important is it in the overall scheme of things?

Examine your assumptions before you start building on them. What do you think is true that may not be? Did you research the needs of your target community or did you take an educated guess? Be clear about the reason you are doing a certain project in the first place. Will it get the job done? Will it achieve the results you want? Is it needed right now by your target community? Or is this some bright shiny idea that caught your eye and is momentarily exciting?

Before your chose an item from your “to do” list, check the ones that are the most important in the overall scheme of things. Are you working your Direct Outreach Strategy? Is your Cornerstone Content in place? Is your opt in offer getting the conversion rate you want? How vital is it that you do this particular task right this moment? Then make your choice.
Measure your results

If you haven’t set up ways to measure your success do so now. How will you know if a certain approach, product, or tactic is achieving the results you want? Is it in sales, conversions, attendees, referrals, or RSS feed sign ups? How can you tell if you are doing it right? Set up Google Analytics, learn to understand the cpanel in your web host, research your key words, and check your RSS feed subscriptions. If it’s not working, change it. If it is working keep doing more of the same.
Completion, completion, completion

It’s easy to get pulled off onto a new exciting idea but that only serves to keep us moving in circles. Capture the new idea by writing it down, but finish what you have decided is important to do in place first. You will feel a strong sense of accomplishment as you check a project off of your to do list.

What’s the most important thing I can be doing right now?

Chose only three things from your list to do each day. Just three. If you’re going to write an entire ebook maybe you assign yourself two hours of writing and then move onto another task. Or you may be on a writing roll and just keep writing for several days. If you are going to pick just three things to do choose the most important things you can do that day. It may have a deadline, it may be a strategy session that lays the foundation for a new project, or it may be completion of a project. What is important that you work on today? Then do those three things first. Three items do not make a large list. And accomplishing three things puts you three action steps closer to your goals.
What needs to come off your list?

By each task put the date it goes on the list. If it’s been on the list for six weeks move it to an “I’ll get to the eventually list.” Don’t keep your “to do” list filled with projects you keep putting off. That’s discouraging. If you keep choosing to do the tasks that are most important you will move forward. Drop the other items. They’ll pop up when and if they are needed.

I have a document on my computer labeled “Task Management” that I keep open all day. I have categories like Blog Posts, Product Ideas, Business Ideas, Personal and Resources that I can quickly pop an idea or reminder onto. I put links to relevant blog posts there. I put quotes that inspire me. I make lists of elements of a particular task there. My other open document is called “My Schedule” It is there I list three things to do that day and do them. That separates the wanna-be’s from the gonna-be’s!

Is it worth doing?

Do you need to drop it all together? Don’t be afraid to abandon a project or task. Measure each task for its value to your overall vision. Look out for the putting-things-off task that helps you avoid a challenging project. Talk your ideas out with others – a team or a friend or a peer. Even in the middle of a project recheck to see if it is still moving you in the direction you want to go. Maybe it’s pointing you in a new direction that you have to consider. Maybe it’s turning out to be too time consuming or too complicated. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Is this action worth doing right now? Then do what is worthy of your time and energy.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

If you like this article you might also like:

Are You Drowning in Too Much Stuff?

By

by Cara Lumen

I read a blog post recently that suggested putting everything in your office (or whatever room you need to de-clutter) into boxes so that all the surfaces are clear of stuff. When you want something you get it out and put it where it belongs –the book on the bookshelf, the stapler in a reachable place or your contact information nearby. And after awhile you end up with what you need and use handy and a lot of stuff in boxes that you really do not need – so you can toss it!

 

Put stuff away

Pick a morning when you are fresh and rethink what you have out on the surfaces around you. I’m going to move to a smaller space and I already know I have too many put-abouts. So I’m giving some away and I’m still clinging to others. My day of reckoning is coming.

Clutter to the eyes is clutter to the brain. Think Zen gardens. Think an item of beauty surrounded by space. Think serenity. Think a featured item that catches your eye and rewards it. Because I have so many items that I enjoy or value I’m going to create different seasons for my put-abouts – like putting out Christmas decorations and taking them down. But I’ll create special groupings that change the look and feel of my space and give each item space in which to be appreciated. I’ll do this quarterly with the solstice and equinox which will give me a theme and a specific time frame. It will be fun to change the covers on the pillows, or drape some fabric over the backs of chairs

Tune into your space often and see what it needs from your. Notice how refreshing it is to change the look of your space, the energy, the focus.

Why do you need it where it is?

I happen to know that one fairly large Quan Yin statue of mine is in the wrong place because it was on top of a bookcase and looked great but my cat Sabrina likes to sleep up there and I thought she might knock it off. In fact a lot of things that had feathers on them or were woven are put away because her brother Sebastian really likes to play with feathers. He’d even jump up on the wall to try to reach them. Sometimes things end up in the wrong place for unexpected reasons.

Of course moving is going to allow me to rethink where everything goes but you can do that whether you move or not. For instance, in my present office my desk faces the door in good Feng Shui manner and I have a great view out of a window. In my new space it’s just not going to be possible to face the door but I can keep a good window view.

Are you using your space well? Is what you need handy? Are you hemmed in by things you don’t need? Clear your space so it holds just the things you need.

Make things do double duty

I am determined to keep a three foot high piece of driftwood that I bought in Oregon years ago that I consider my Goddess piece. It was on my patio in California and my deck here in Kansas but I will have no deck where I am moving and I still want that piece so I had to get creative. I have figured out that I will drape some drawers I use for office supply storage and make a meditation space on top of it using the driftwood as a centerpiece. I can lift the drape to get the stuff in the drawers and the rest of the time I have created a very special space to enjoy.

My computer desk already does double duty. The shelf that could hold stuff is totally bare – except when a cat sleeps on it. I have an open shelf bookcase that stores my USB connections and my microphone stand. The top shelf holds my phone.

Create levels. Use fabric to change a look, hide utilitarian things under beautiful things. Get creative. Make things do double duty.

Keep things you need handy

It is said we only use only 10% of our stuff. But how handy is it? Do you have to wade through a drawer of seldom used kitchen utensils to get to the one or two you use all the time? Do you have clothes you haven’t worn all year? Try hanging your clothes with the open end of the hanger toward you. When you use it put it back the right way with the open end to the back. Before long you’ll know which clothes you never touch and can send them out to be in service elsewhere.

What do you need close by? I keep my passwords printed on a sheet in alphabetical order that I can easily access, my family phone numbers are there too. I have a file nearby for quickly stuffing paid bills. My calculator is very close. But there are some things that do not need to be in my immediate vicinity that can be put on the bookshelf behind me.

Look at what you use and enjoy looking at most often and make it accessible.

Toss the “just in case” things

I had so many “just in case” things in my garage in California – interesting things that could be made into a craft project at some point. More gardening stakes than I could use on a farm because they came in a package of 12 or so. The slow cooker I have used twice in ten years. The big pot I needed when I was cooking for my children but no longer need for just me. Get real about the 10% you really need and place it where you can get to it. Give away the rest.

To prepare for this move I went through the large collection of written material that I keep in binders. I threw away nearly half. I kept material from courses I took, but I found that every time I had an idea for an information product I had made a small binder. A lot of them were still in the idea stage so I dismantled those binders. I rescued about two feet of paper to recycle in my printer. What have you prepared for and never done that is taking up space? Get rid of it.

Honor how you run your day

Several times a year rethink how you do your life. I rethink my life at the solstice and equinox. See what needs to change. Do you need to set up an exercise corner with your steps and dumb bells and pumping rubber stuff handy? Are you starting to cook more for yourself and need to create a better system for your recipes? Do you need to organize your projects in binders or files or some system that allows you to pull out the material easily and just as easily put it away? How is your filing system? Oh yes, you could put all of your computer hard drive on a backup drive and then just start to reinstall what you need. Now there’s a project for you.

Be aware of the energy

You have great control over your environment. How you care for it and what you put into it affects its energy. If you are surrounded by clutter, chaos, and abandoned and un-cared for items, that’s how you are caring for yourself. Take time to arrange your environment so it pleases you. If you keep it organized, put things away when not in use, and lovingly clean it regularly, you’ll feel that care you are giving yourself. You will know you are honoring the life you are living, the gifts you are giving and the service you are offering when you keep your environment simple and aesthetically pleasing.

Go through some stuff away and give a lot away – today.

A feast for your eyes

When you lovingly prepare your space you will find pleasure wherever you look. And when there are lovely places to look you will find your environment nourishing, replenishing and peaceful. Give thought to your environment and make it nourishing to you. Home is where we come for replenishment. Make it a safe haven.

How do you handle your stuff? Please share.

©2010 Cara Lumen

Additional insights: