Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

goal setting

Entrepreneur’s Cheerleading Section – Magnetic Momentum Builder 5:15 Report

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by Cara Lumen

winner_0 As entrepreneurs we are often our own support staff and certainly are our own cheerleading team. That’s one of the reasons I love using a 5:15 report.

The 5:15 report is a powerful tool for both support and acknowledgment. Whether you are facilitating a committee, an office full of people, or focusing on your own individual business, the 5:15 report will help you and the people you are working with to stay on target, shorten meeting times and allow space for everyone to acknowledge what they accomplished, what worked and what they would like to change.

If you are working with others a 5-15 report lets each team member know about what’s going on with specific projects, people and processes. It helps to quickly identify what is working, and what is not. It provides a forum for celebrating success, asking for help when needed, smoothing potential pockets of disharmony, and passing along information of interest.

The 5:15 should take no more than 15 minutes to write and 5 minutes to read. The process has three parts:

  • A simple description of what you did during the week/month. (I do mine weekly).
  • An honest description of your state of mind and the climate you see around you.
  • One idea that will improve your job, department, or organization.

The Magnetic Momentum Builder Captures Feelings

As I worked with the 5:15 format I began to personalize it.  I turned it into the Magnetic Momentum Builder that tracks not only my actions for the week but my feelings.  Was I relieved, excited, amazed, satisfied?  Emotions are a big key to where we should be moving.  Noticing them helps us hear our inner guidance. I write them in my Magnetic Momentum Builder which is simply a table in Word.

The Magnetic Momentum Builder is a Motivator

I have also created my Magnetic Momentum Builder to act as a motivator – to capture areas I want to be certain to take action in – article submissions, blog posts, radio show scripts, my outreach strategy.  It becomes a nudge as well as an acknowledgement list.

Here are some of the things I include:

Major Wins – It’s important to notice and acknowledge our successes. This could be a “little” success like finally figuring out how to do a small technical task, or an unexpected windfall.  Just give yourself a pat on the back and add some gratitude in there for what has shown up in your life. 

Unexpected Blessings – I have categories for people, ideas, prosperity. Noticing the unexpected gifts that have shown up in your life again deepens our awareness of the signs and signals and guidance we consistently receive from the Universe.

Qualities for the month – What do I want to embrace – my creativity, higher completion, do I want to focus on deepening relationships?  This gives me the opportunity to consciously emphasize a quality I want to embrace. 

Specific Achievements – You can have your Magnetic Momentum Builder include a list that includes things like clients you served, courses you took, collaborative partnerships you formed, or products you created.  It should include personal breakthroughs and skills you have developed. Take time to look for all the good that has come your way and acknowledge yourself for what you have achieved. And remember to write down how you feel about them.

The original 5:15 report only asks these questions:

  1. What I accomplished
  2. What’s working?
  3. What could be improved?
  4. How am I feeling? What is the climate of the group?
  5. Good Idea (what one thing will make the biggest improvement in my life, work or the organization?)
  6. What concrete steps will I take to make this happen? By when?
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Build your Online Business on What You Already Know

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 by Cara Lumen

your-strengths_0We all have our own unique spin on life. No one else will approach a task or idea in the same way.  That’s what makes us unique – and wonderful.  Your job, in building your online business is to take what you already know and turn it into a product or service that benefits others.  So how do you do that?

What Do You Love to Do?

No business is worth doing unless you love to do it. Kahlil Gibran says, “Work is love made visible.” If your days are not filled with excitement, joy, satisfaction and fulfillment, you haven’t found your sweet spot yet.  Keep looking.  Keep tweaking. Create and adjust.

You may have to thumb through your past looking for those special times when you felt fulfilled and happy.  What were you doing? Who were you doing it with?  How did you feel?  What we are meant to be doing we’ve been doing in some version all our lives. Identify your passion and build on that.

Who Do You Want to Help?

You will organically be drawn to a particular segment that you wish to help.  It may be an age group; it may be people with a particular challenge, or animals or the environment.  Find your own personal fire – the passion that will fuel your work.  Then go build a business around it.

How Do You Want to Help Them?

You may want to go to foreign countries to help.  You may want to be active in your community. Or you may want to sit at your computer and serve.  

How do you want to help?  What are you willing to do?  A little?  A lot?  You may want to teach, write, give talks, coach, create products, connect people or organize businesses,  Look at your talents, your strengths and your passion and let them guide you.  For instance, I finally discovered that at the core of my passion is the simple task of organizing – organizing people’s ideas, organizing words on a page, or organizing concepts for a telecourse or radio show.  I happen to do that organizing in the area of building internet businesses but that passion could take me in any direction I chose.  Look for the core reason you want to be in service and let it guide you.

Build your business from your inside out

Aristotle says, “Where your talent and the heart of the world cross, there lies your calling.”  What do people ask you to do for them?  What opportunities keep organically showing up in your life? What subtle invitations are you receiving from the world around you that invite you to change, to choose, to commit?  Build your business from your inside out and share with others what you already know. You ARE your business – share your heart.
 
©2010 Cara Lumen

10 Ways for You to Start Earning More Income

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by Cara Lumen

I think a lot of us are looking around to see how we might increase our income, including me, so I’ll share with you some of the ways I am looking at new ways to be in service. What we have to do is start creating more opportunities – opportunities for us to make new products, offer new services, and reach new people.

1- What is needed now?

What has changed for your Target Audience?  I’ll bet for everyone there is more caution around how they spend their money.  So that’s a major consideration in how you can rearrange your services and products for their current needs.  Let’s simply start with that premise and see where it takes it.  Define the problem of your Target Audience.  The problem is: people are being more conservative and selective with their spending.

2 – Chunk down what you have

So what does that mean to you?  Well, it may mean that you have to create smaller purchasing opportunities so they can still interact with you but for a lower price.  I just created a new coaching program for  Magnetic Signature Product Development  Program  Rather than teach this information in a class, which I have done, I decided to individualize a series of three or four coaching session that are meant to produce a specific and individualized information product like an ebook or teleclass, book proposal or a powerful opt in offer.

How can you chunk down what you offer into shorter, results oriented offerings?

3 – What do you have you can leverage?

I had a great time teaching my “How to Create a Magnetic Marketing Plan” course and I realized the valuable exercises in there needed to be a standalone workbook.  So I created a new Magnetic Marketing Plan Workbook.  People can interact with me on a more economical scale and still get great results.

As I continue to do my Passionately On Purpose Radio  show I am beginning  to collect an interesting audio series that I could bundle as a series on a specific topic.

And speaking of series, as part of my blog post planning I’m going to start writing in series so there are automatic links to the next or previous post on the topic.  It’s a great way to keep people interested as you give greater value than you can with a single piece.

What parts and pieces can you lift from something that exists and turn it into a valuable and less expensive offering so you can keep supplying your client base with great value.

4 – What talent can you develop more?

I bet there are some things you have wanted to do and that people keep asking you for that you could put into service.  It may be as simple as emphasizing one facet of your business more. For instance, I can start promoting my curriculum development and copy writing more.  That may mean different, stronger landing pages, or more blog posts and articles about curriculum development with a strong resource box that indicates that’s what I do.  Look at what people ask you for that you are not giving and see if it’s something you want to do.

5 – Learn something new

I’m really expanding my use of blogging and keep learning new things.  For instance, I’m taking my knowledge of SEO to another level and consciously applying what I have learned.  I’m reading more about writing posts and articles. Even though I know a lot, there is always more to learn.

I would like to learn more about video so I can help my coaching clients know when/how to use it as well as see what it will do for me.  Perhaps it is time for me to learn at least the rudiments of that. And there is a new WordPress membership site plugin that I want to master and use. I joined the Third Tribe  to go hang out with people who are really working their business well.

What do you need to learn that will make you more valuable?

6 -What can you create that’s new?

Again, I’m looking at less expensive items that bring value and keep you connected.  I realized I have a lot of really good templates for ebooks and teleclasses as well as systems for tracking ideas, and brainstorming new ones.  I’m going to put them into one workbook offering.  Great value, easy-to-handle price.

Look around and see what you have organically collected while serving your clients and customers and see what new product you can offer by combining and repurposing them.

7-New Outreach

I now make enough from my affiliate marketing of products I recommend all the time, to cover my cost of doing business. It’s taken some years, but there it is.  If you have not thought about becoming an affiliate of a product or service you use that your Target Audience would also use, it’s certainly worth some exploration.  For me it’s not about selling anything it’s about having an affiliate link to what I organically recommend to my coaching clients particularly in the area of web site development.

8-New Collaborative Partnerships

Who can you join up with to create something bigger than what either of you do together?  I’m planning to teach again with Sharon Sayler, the Communication Coach.  We do a “How to Develop and Deliver a Magnetic Teleclass” course.  I teach about the curriculum development and she teaches delivery techniques.  If it’s a course you give together you can make a home study course from it and you both have a new product to offer.

9-Adjust Your Prices

I’d rather add more bonuses than lower my prices but you might want to look at both possibilities.  Have a promotion and lower your prices for a specific period and see what happens.  You might find people who have been waiting to come to you suddenly decide they will.

Be sure your sales cycle has a variety of price points.  Fill in the blanks.  Combine and bundle two or three ebooks into one value package.  Make a series of coaching packages that make it more valuable to sign up for longer periods of time.

10– Make a 25 ways list

Now sit down and start a “25 Ways for Me to Start Earning More Income” list.  Think of some of the things we’ve talked about in this post.  Let your mind go exploring.  Write down everything, don’t censor, just let the ideas come.  Then make your choices and put yourself in a position to make more money today.

c 2010 Cara Lumen

Ya Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do

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by Cara Lumen

Don’t you love your intuition – that inner knowing that helps you make decisions?  When I decided to move from California to be around my family in Kansas I decided in a nano-second.  There was a knowing, a certainty that it was the perfect step to take.  And within two hours I had given notice to my landlord, called my daughter to say I was coming and got on line to check out places to live.  That kind of certainty makes decision making easy.

But what if you are not so sure?

Cultivate your inner knowing
You need to learn to trust your inner wisdom. So check it out.  Listen to those silent words you hear, or the sudden feeling that gives you a clue, and test it out.  Keep testing until you are comfortable with how you are interpreting those signs.  

Ask for signs
I love this one because it’s rather like going on an adventure.  Ask the Universe for a sign that the step you are considering is the right one and watch what happens.  Periodically I have to say, “OK Universe, what am I to do now?” And I read something that gives me a great idea, or I talk to someone on the phone and explain something to them and there is my answer, or someone is explaining their thoughts and I get the one that’s applicable to me.  

Know what you really want
If you keep looking deep enough you’ll find what is at the core of your passion.  I have gotten as far as learning and teaching as my passion but beneath that is a need to organize – thoughts, ideas, learning procedures.  And one of the signs I keep getting is people asking me to create exercises for their books. I create great systems for myself and I share them with others in my courses and in my coaching.  My latest thought is to make a collection of worksheets that simplify and clarify any project.  Keep defining your passion and see what others recognize in you. You have to know what you are good at but you have to be willing to experiment and keep trying things until  you find a way to make it work.  

Do your research
Sometimes we can’t take a step because we don’t have enough information.  Gathering information doesn’t mean you have to do it, it simply means you can make an informed decision.  Go exploring.  Get more information.  Find out what others are doing.  See what you can offer that other’s are not.  See if what you find appeals to you.  What do you want to do?  What do you want to offer? What are you not willing to do?  Listen to your intuition and inner knowing and follow your passion. Then make your choice.

Take action
Nothing’s going to happen if you don’t start.  Make an outline, devise some steps.  Start.  Take one step at a time.  Remember that business is a series of projects so divide your idea into measurable steps and congratulate yourself when you get one completed.  

Do what ya gotta do
Life is a series of choices.  The more aware we are of our passion, our desires, and our strengths, the more on-target our choices will be.  Look, listen and choose and go do what ya gotta do.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

Profitable Goal Setting for the Winter Solstice

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Passionately On Purpose Radio with Cara Lumen, Your Idea Optimizer, who keeps you passionately on purpose while you make a difference in your world. As a Business Coach, Content Developer and Educator she talks about how to uncover your passion, define your purpose, identify your path, make money from what you already know and attract the people you are meant to serve. But most of all, she’ll help you believe you can!!!  Join her Mondays on www.blogtalkradio.com/passionatelyonpurpose

This Show

If you don’t know where you are going you’ll definitely end up someplace else. Let’s talk about what you should get rid of, what you should add and how to tell what to keep to make your business flourish in 2010.

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