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I grew up with lots of MONEY stories – that it was hard to create, that it was even harder to keep, that there was never enough of it…

And because of the stress that money seemed to play in my and my family’s life, I vowed to focus on making a LOT of it when I was pretty young…

Unfortunately, that often led me to work to the point of burnout to ensure my “financial security” – making well over $100k a year in my mid-20’s and still worrying about it all disappearing!

Then I was told that the solution was to redefine my RELATIONSHIP to money, to treat it or speak about it differently – BUT still, the focus was on making money something OTHER than a simpler way to exchange goods and services than carrying around chickens or goats for trade…

But one day it occurred to me, through being coached around this myself, WHAT IF it’s possible that we are wasting our creative energy trying to create a different RELATIONSHIP with money?

WHAT IF instead of treating it like a person that we needed to have more effective “communication” with, that focusing all of our energy on purposeful SERVICE and seeing how we can make a real difference in the lives of others is the missing link?

Water boiling is simply the side effect of applying focused and consistent heat to a pot of otherwise still, room temperature water

If I want it to boil, I don’t need to change my RELATIONSHIP with water, I simply need to shift my attention to how to increase the heat being applied in a focused manner…

Apply YOUR HEAT, YOUR POWER, and YOUR IMAGINATION to consistently SERVING and watch how WEALTH becomes a natural side effect!

AND NOW to TOTALLY sound like I’m contradicting myself…

I had a moment about 18 months ago where I was in TOTAL scarcity mode about money…

I had just moved to Los Angeles where the cost of living was LITERALLY double where I moved from and my “MONEY STORIES” went on FULL BLAST!

So as a way to keep myself in a place of CREATIVITY and SERVICE with a “salt bae” pinch of SURRENDER, I wrote something that I STILL read to myself once in a while…

Thoughts about money will get NO more of my time or energy UNLESS it is to be creative and easy around it…

Fear of “running out of money” will NO LONGER be a belief I hold…

My NEW TRUTH is that money is ALWAYS on its way…

…AND proportionally so to how LIGHT, LOOSE-GRIPPED, PLAY-FULL and CREATIVE I am being in the world each and every day!

I can’t HIDE from money! It is like a HEAT SEEKING MISSILE that has me in its crosshairs and is ALWAYS coming for me-I can DODGE it for a while, but it will ALWAYS find me…

It feels SOOOO GOOOD to no longer have any HEAVY STORIES about Money!

My challenge for you is a simple one.  If you took your focus OFF of changing your relationship with the CONCEPT of money and instead asked yourself, “what is ONE way I can dial up the VALUE and SERVICE I bring to the world today?” – what might that look like for you?  It might be astonishing a current client, it might be crafting a creative offer to help those who aren’t able to afford to work with you at your full rate, or it may even be giving the gift of a complimentary coaching session to a FORMER client, just to deepen your bond and intimacy with them. 

Raise your hand if you’ve ever held back from sharing your message because you were afraid of being judged, criticized, or ridiculed…

OR if you’ve ever NOT created something because you were worried it wouldn’t be as POWERFUL or as CLEAR as you wanted it to be…

OR if you’ve ever not SHARED something because it didn’t feel PERFECT yet…

Is your hand up? Yea, mine too…

It’s SO easy to fall into the trap of believing that we have to write the PERFECT post, or the BEST blog, or the most TRANSFORMATIONAL course because THIS is the thing that is going to MAKE or BREAK our biz!

But that’s total BULLPOOP and just PARALYZES us from taking ACTION because NOTHING can EVER be PERFECT…

So what’s my secret for overcoming PERFECTION PARALYSIS? So glad you asked…

SNAPCHAT!

Yep, even though I don’t actually USE Snapchat, last year I had the pleasure of hosting a 24hr Snapchat takeover for SoulPancake and the experience reminded me of an important lesson around thought-leadership and building a Competition-Proof business. And it was this…

The power of EPHEMERAL DESIGN, aka creating something that is MEANT to disappear in the near future…

Granted, Snapchat didn’t INVENT this idea, but it definitely POPULARIZED it by building an entire platform around posts that are only visible for 24hrs…

And the beauty of Snaps and of ephemeral design in general is that if we KNOW that something is going to DISAPPEAR, then we don’t feel pressured to make it the PERFECT thing, because it’s not going to LAST anyway…

So even though I don’t USE Snapchat, I try to treat EVERYTHING I create as it if WERE a Snap…

Which doesn’t mean that I don’t give my all or put sincere love, attention and focus into what I’m creating, It just means I avoid getting caught up in needing anything to be PERFECT (which keeps me in ACTION)…

So if your content ONLY had 24 hours to live, would then disappear into the ether and you never had to worry about it being seen again, what would you create TODAY that you’ve been WAITING to share?

 

My clients and students ask me all the time, once they’ve connected with someone over email and had a bit of back-and-forth, they want to know how to best convert the PROSPECT into a PAYING CLIENT…

So, since I’ve gotten this question SO MANY times now, I thought I’d publicly share my FOOLPROOF method for “closing” someone over EMAIL…

Incidentally, this technique would also work for closing someone over “text” or “DM.” Really, it’s just a method for closing someone via ANY form of written communication, and it’s SUPER SIMPLE…

First, go to the email, text, or DM thread you have with that person…

Then…

DON’T.

DON’T DO IT!

DON’T try to PERSUADE or SELL over email, text, DM, fax, or carrier pigeon. Pick up the phone, get on a Zoom video call, do SOMETHING that puts you into ACTUAL conversation!

THAT’s how you create a COMPETITION-PROOF business…

Emails are GREAT. Text messages are GREAT. Carrier pigeons are GREAT (if you want to send an important message with a side of bird flu)…

But if you want to sell a high-value, high-intimacy service that promises TRANSFORMATION, then the PROCESS of selling it should ALSO include intimacy and the possibility for transformation…

If you’re selling a commoditized thing like pencils en mass or even a $27 e-book, then sure… use email (though I’d say selling either of those is not going to give you the impact or income you desire…)

But if you’re trying to sell something that SERVES people and TRANSFORMS their lives, their businesses, their health, or their relationships, then SHOW UP from a place of SERVICE when you’re selling it…

That is my ENTIRE mantra for selling: SELL by SERVING…

Reach out to them—and THIS part you CAN do over email—and offer to waive your fee and set aside some time to REALLY dive in and HELP!

And then…show up and SERVE them. Let them EXPERIENCE what it’s like to work with you so that they see the VALUE in continuing to do so…

If you want WEEKLY LIVE trainings from me on how to create a COMPETITION-PROOF Business through SERVING instead of SELLING, join our DOPE free Facebook Group!

If you ever feel like your clients need you to have it “ALL FIGURED OUT,” keep reading…

Before I became an entrepreneur, I spent most of my career working in technology consulting, primarily partnering with Cisco (the tech company, not the thong song singer 😂🍑) and their advanced networking technologies…

At the time VoIP (voice over IP) – aka making phone calls over the internet – had become HUGE and Cisco was dominating the market…

My team would design the infrastructure to make this possible for businesses and then we would go in, deploy it and make it all work…

Except, there was a PROBLEM…

Cisco VoIP was so CRISP, so CLEAR, so PERFECT in its lack of background noise, that when people were on the phone with each other, they often thought that they had gotten disconnected…”Hello, Hello, are you still there???”

And this became a problem; we were getting complaints from companies who had just spent sometimes $100k+ purchasing this supposedly NEW and BETTER technology…

So Cisco got SUPER creative and decided that in order to make the most of the technology but keep it FAMILIAR for the end users, they would inject ARTIFICIAL STATIC on the line…

It almost sounds ridiculous, but the BIGGEST networking infrastructure company in the world had to make their technology LESS perfect in order for people to feel comfortable using it and to lower their resistance to adopting the new system…

Do you see what I’m getting at?

In order for US to show up most powerfully for the people we serve and to give them the BEST chance of maximizing the BENEFITS of our work with them, we need to establish a foundational level of CONNECTEDNESS!

We want to build INTIMACY which is created through REALNESS, through RELATABILITY, through sharing our own FLAWS and STORIES, through injecting some “noise onto the line” by our own missteps, mistakes, victories and all…THAT is what truly brings us together!

Are YOU willing to be REAL and RELATABLE instead of POLISHED and PERFECT with your clients? See for yourself the difference it makes!

Alright, so when you first got into this “coaching thing”, you were probably super excited and eager and hopeful to make your passion for helping others into a business.  But then, within a few weeks or a few months, something starts to change…

I KNOW for a fact when I first got started (and I’ve heard the same from the coaches I work with), as soon as we are “Coaches trying to build a business”, the seriousness sets in!

And then, all the things I “HATE” doing start fighting with all the things I “LOVE” doing…

I HATE social media, I HATE getting out there and connecting, I HATE “marketing”, I HATE “sales”, I HATE trying to “close people”, etc etc…

AND simultaneously…

I LOVE coaching, I LOVE helping, I LOVE making money, I LOVE feeling fulfilled, I LOVE seeing people transform, I LOVE feeling a sense of significance and purpose from the work I do, I LOVE seeing others LIT UP…

So if THOSE are the COMPETING INTERESTS inherent in ‘BUILDING A COACHING BUSINESS’, then OF COURSE it is going to be SERIOUS, STRESSFUL, NEEDY, PANICKY “business” indeed!

F THAT!

From now on, YOU are an “ACTIVIST”!

Because ACTIVISTS only care about making a difference…

They wake up EVERY day asking themselves:

“who can I share this message with today?”

“how can I further this movement for the greater good?”

“who probably has no idea that this opportunity for betterment of the world exists that I can turn up and inform?”

“how amazing would it be if I was able to make SOME small difference in the world today – some DENT in this thing that I care so much about?”

ACTIVISTS don’t see sales or marketing or getting out there or social media as “things to hate” OR “things to overcome their hatred for”…they are too committed to making a DIFFERENCE to give any SIGNIFICANCE to stories that distract them from that mission!

The root word of activist is ACT!

And THAT is their default state…true activists are in CONSTANT motion, CONSTANT service, CONSTANT belief in what they stand for, what they do and the possibilities that are available to all of us…

So please, QUIT your coaching business, even if #JFT (just for today), and go be the most engaged, loving, fearless, service-centered, playful ACTIVIST for human potential and energy activation that the world has ever seen!

In 2018, I partnered with Defy Ventures to spend a weekend mentoring inmates (or EIT’s – “Entrepreneurs in Training”) at the Pelican Bay Super Max state prison in California…

Defy takes entrepreneurs into prisons around the country to mentor these EITs on how to transform their hustle into biz ventures (because believe it or not, many of them have real business acumen – they were just channeling it into illegal activities).

Over the course of that weekend, something happened that taught me a really valuable lesson on how to help FREE people from the Prison of their minds…

You see, I made a promise to myself before I boarded my plane that I would show up OPEN-HEARTED and OPEN-MINDED and to not see the EITs as “convicts”.

And it’s very EASY to see THAT version of them. Because the whole context of the environment is “look at this person who has done terrible things and look at where they ended up”.

So my commitment going in was to NOT see the full face tattoos, to NOT see the STORY of what they did or who they WERE, and instead focus on the NEXT version of them instead of the EX version of them…

And it reminded me how important it is to do this with EVERYONE I work with…

Because our clients and prospects will always come to us with deeply ingrained, permanent and pervasive stories about their limitations, about who they are, have been or always will be.

But when we choose to SEE and SPEAK ONLY to the GREATEST version of them, then THEY start seeing what’s possible for the NEXT version of themselves too. This is TRUE FREEDOM: the ability to see that the past has passed and to fully step into a reinvented FUTURE!

This goes for ourselves as well, because it can be so easy for us to buy into our own stories – thinking that our past automatically dictates our future – and it simply isn’t true…

Take a moment right now, choose someone in your world (a client, a prospect, a friend or family member or, of course, even yourself) and commit, just for today (#JFT) to only see and speak to the NEXT version instead of the EX version of them! It is the greatest gift you can give them!

I can’t believe it has been a YEAR since I attended an event in LA where Rainn Wilson (Founder of SoulPancake and “Dwight” from “The Office”) was on stage interviewing Terry Crews (aka “Sergeant Jeffords” on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the “pec flex” guy from the Old Spice commercials)…

They were talking about some pretty heavy subjects and at one point, Crews said something that really resonated with me…

It was: “CREATIVITY is the opposite of COMPETITION.”

Why do I feel so compelled to share it with you – especially now as we are not only finishing up the YEAR but an entire DECADE?

Because looking back over 2019 (and if you are like a lot of us, EVERY year in this last decade), you may see that you beat yourself up or beat yourself down based on what OTHER people were doing…

Your body isn’t fit enough…your business isn’t big enough…your expertise isn’t happening fast enough…

ALL of this enoughness talk that LITERALLY can’t exist unless our mind has a construct that something different (or as the brain will normally label it – “better”) exists!

And the reason I’m sharing this is because I want 2020 to be the best year ever!

For you that may mean hitting some major goal or milestone in your wealth, health and or relationships but honestly, the OUTCOME you are seeking is not what I care about.

What I care about is that you see yourself for the incredible human you are – the unique path you are on, the timeline that is unfolding exactly as it should be and for you to see nothing but possibilities for this next decade.  THAT energy is what I want you to feel because I know the OUTCOMES are just a natural byproduct of living in the DIRECTION of those feelings.

Instead of competing or comparing, when instead, we’re 100 percent in CREATIVITY – heads down, taking aligned, purposeful action – we don’t even SEE anyone else. It’s like we are wearing horse blinders in the best possible way!

When I’m in CREATIVITY, I don’t compare my program, my offering, or my impact to ANYONE else. When I’m OUT of creativity, on the other hand, I am also out of SERVICE…

And being OF SERVICE – really making a contribution to the world – is what makes me feel like LIFE…

See, there’s a great passage by one of my fav spiritual teachers, Sadhguru, that reads: “Whether someone else is doing better or worse than you is NOT the point. The POINT is that you feel like LIFE”…

So anytime you feel like you are starting to COMPARE yourself to or COMPETE with someone else, ask yourself if that feels CREATIVE or CONSTRICTIVE; like SERVICE or EGO; like LIFE or LIFE-LESS…

And if it’s any of those latter words, ask yourself “how can I shift GENTLY and LOVINGLY into 5% more CREATIVITY? What ACTION can I take that will make me feel like LIFE?”

I want to wish you and your family the absolute BEST holiday season and New Year and I am SO grateful that you continue to be in my world and allow me to be in yours!

I love you and I’ll see you next decade!

A few months ago I was interviewed by my buddy Mordechai Wiener who was documenting stories about major weight loss…

Afterwards, he asked me to send him some “hero” pictures and luckily, I had JUST done a photo shoot…

But he didn’t want THOSE pictures. Instead, he wanted pictures from BEFORE I lost all the weight…

What!? How are THOSE my hero pics?

And that’s when he went on to explain that THAT guy—the FAT guy—is the one who decided that something needed to change. THAT guy is the one who committed to TRANSFORMING his life. And who I am today wouldn’t EXIST if THAT guy hadn’t decided to make the changes that he made…

Wow… 🤯

I had NEVER thought of myself as a “hero” in my LOWEST moments, but he was RIGHT, it was in THOSE moments that I had made the decision to change.

And this was such a POWERFUL thing for me to realize, because not only did I see the hero in ME, but I started seeing the hero in EVERYONE I work with…

EVERY SINGLE PERSON who applies to work with me—whether for 1:1 coaching or for my biz accelerator program—or who joins my private FB group and really engages with what I share and puts it into practice… they are ALL f*cking heroes…

Not AFTER they do the thing that they say they want to do, not AFTER they’ve overcome some challenge or they’ve created something MASSIVE in the world, but RIGHT NOW, because they have chosen NOW—despite any belief or disbelief they may have in themselves or in what’s possible—to at least EXPLORE what the future could look like for them…

And the same is also true for every person YOU talk to…

So please…don’t DOWNPLAY or DISCOUNT what you’ve done in the world that makes you a hero RIGHT NOW. And when you’re talking to prospective clients, practice seeing the SUPERHERO that’s in front of you.

 

 

Coaches frequently ask me: “How do I know what to CHARGE?” And while it’s part art, part science, here are THREE factors that make it MUCH easier to figure out what to charge…

1) Your fees MUST match your OVERALL financial GOALS!

Whether you want to make $1M or $100k a year, you must be sure that your fee can realistically FULFILL your financial objectives. If you aren’t making enough money to sustain yourself, you won’t be in business for long…

Get clear on your financial goals, look at your offerings and then consider how many of EACH you would need to sell in order to support that goal.

2) Your fees should have you EXCITED to show up!

Even if your fees fulfill your goals, if the amount of work you are doing to make that happen doesn’t also EXCITE you to show up for your clients, then it may be time to tweak your pricing…

If you set a low price from a place of SCARCITY then you may end up feeling resentful later on – so make sure YOU are LIT UP by your fee!

There IS one CAVEAT, ESPECIALLY if you are just starting out…

And that caveat is… it also depends on where you are in your business! If you are JUST STARTING OUT your goal should be to get EXPERIENCE, to FILL your calendar, to be SERVING people and HONING your craft, and to have INCOME coming in the door…

So while you can absolutely choose to wait for the PERFECT CLIENT at the PERFECT PRICE, just know that there’s a TRADE OFF and you MAY be waiting a while and not making any money in the meantime…

You can also do the flip side and say, “I don’t care WHAT I charge, I just want to get CLIENTS.” And you’ll probably get a lot of experience and your confidence will grow quickly but it also means that you may not always be super lit up about showing up… .
There’s always a trade off. The question is, which trade off are you willing to fall in LINE with as you are building your experience, your testimonials, and your confidence!

3) Your fees are NOT a reflection of YOUR value

No, the VALUE is a REFLECTION of your client’s POSSIBILITIES. Your PRICE is simply the way that THEY check-in and get into ALIGNMENT with their own EXCITEMENT (or FEARS, which is ok too) around them…

Your job is to help your clients look within to see if DOING this work is VALUABLE enough for THEM that investing in themselves is a NO-BRAINER…

THEY should be convincing YOU of the value of your services, NOT the OTHER way around…#NoMoConvincing

If THEY say it’s too expensive, it DOESN’T mean your services aren’t valuable ENOUGH. It just means that the COST of INACTION is still less than the UPSIDE of INVESTING and is an opening to help them find CLARITY on what they REALLY want!

I was on a call with a client recently and they were feeling paralyzed trying to navigate UNCERTAINTY in their business…

So I asked them if she OWNED an UMBRELLA. (Funny enough, she didn’t)…

So THEN I asked her, “if you NEEDED one, do you know where you could FIND one?” And of course she said YES and that there was a store just down the street that sells them…

See, I’ve noticed that A LOT of the people who are on the fence about signing up for my business accelerator program or making any other seemingly BIG decisions in their lives, struggle with the SAME worries around navigating UNCERTAINTY…

Needing CERTAINTY before you take ACTION is like walking around with an umbrella EVERY DAY just IN CASE it rains…

Imagine going out EVERY DAY—rain or shine—and lugging around an umbrella just because it COULD or it MIGHT rain…

You WOULDN’T because if it UNEXPECTEDLY started raining while you were out, you would find an umbrella somewhere, stand under an awning, or pop into a coffee shop—and even if you did get wet, it wouldn’t KILL you and you know how to get DRY again…

THIS is one of the most POWERFUL things we can get about life—that we don’t NEED to have CERTAINTY in order to take ACTION…

When we KNOW, that no matter what happens in our lives it is all figure-out-able, that very few things can really HURT us, that there is NOTHING we have BEEN through that we haven’t GOTTEN through, and that our CREATIVITY and RESOURCEFULNESS will always be MORE POWERFUL than our CIRCUMSTANCES…

Then we STOP LEAKING our creative energy into worrying about the FUTURE and we can instead show up to what we want to CREATE with more PLAY, more ENTHUSIASM, and less STRESS!