Tag Archives: motivational speaker

Business Mentor tip #84 – Be wealth positive not money negative

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By now you’ll be familiar with my belief that the purpose of a business is to create financially freedom for it’s owner.  Of course, you can’t be financially free without money. For most of us, we can’t live the life of our dreams and add value unless we have a healthy attitude to money. Mother Theresa, Buddhist monks and other humanitarians might be able to fulfil their purpose in life without money. But they are not reading this blog. They are not small business owner-operators looking to create freedom and wealth from their business. For those of us looking to make our way in business in western society, we need to love money, respect it and want to use it wisely. You’ll be amazed how many business owners I work with who limit their own success due to an ingrained fear of wealth.

 Changing negative beliefs

Is there anything buried in your psyche that limits your ability to build wealth from your business? Have you ever questioned what might be limiting you from creating a business that makes you a lot of money?

Here’s an exercise to help you check in with yourself about your own attitude to money and wealth. Find a pen and paper, and draw two columns. On one side, write the heading ‘Positive Attitude to Money’ and on the other, write ‘Negative Attitude to Money’.

Positive Attitude to Money Negative Attitude to Money

List as many things as you can in each column. Put your positive beliefs and feelings about money on one side and negative thoughts and feelings on the other.

What does this list tell you? If you have more negative thoughts on one side than positive, it’s possible you’ve got some negative beliefs that are holding you back. This will be true for many people.  If that’s the case for you, you might want to do some work about that. You might want to reconsider your underlying beliefs about money.  Contact me at laura@liber8yourbusiness.com if you’d like to know more about this.

From the desk of liber8yourbusiness.  Business mentors and experts in small business exit strategies. 

Business Mentor Tip #73 – If you build it will they come? @drrobadams

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 “If you build it will they come?” is the title of a new book by Rob Adams.  I attended a workshop taken by Rob last week and was impressed enough to make it my next business mentor tip.  Forgive me Rob if my interpretation of your material in any way undersells it!

The key to successful business is having a product or service that enough people will buy to meet your financial targets.  Many (dare I say most) business start out with what Rob calls the ‘ready, fire, fire,fire, aim’ approach which typically goes like this.  Think of a product/service idea that you think people will love, get it ready for market, dress it up in the way you believe your target audience will find attractive and then attempt to sell it.  When sales don’t meet targets you re-visit your sales strategy and try again.  And again.  Sound familiar?

Well think again.  Surely a way to increase your chances of selling people what they want will increase if you ask them what they want and then deliver it to them in the way they want to receive it?  Or in other words as Rob Adams says … ‘ready, aim, fire’.

This is called market validation.  In essense this means that you go out to your market and find out what their problems are first.  Then you develop the product or solution that will meet those problems better than anything else out there.  You get it right before you invest in development and marketing.  It sounds so logical doesn’t it?

So how do you validate your market?  In Rob’s book ‘If you build it will they come?” he takes you through the methods and steps involved.  But before you rush off and buy it, I’ll share the tip he gave us at the workshop:

Before you launch anything new – a new product or service/a new brand or a new campaign – call up 100 people who represent your target market and ask them what they really need.   In Business Mentor Tip #63 – Gather Your Insights I gave you a list of questions that a someone developing a new business planning tool might ask.

In these questions you are looking for the problem to solve.  What frustrates people?  What annoys them with current options?  What are they trying to do that your product or service could make easier for them?  It’s all about easing pain.  Find the pain and offer the solution.  Ask questions that give you meaningful answers to help design your products and marketing campaigns to meet the need.

The added bonus is that people will pay more for something that makes them feel better.  If you can give them what they really want, they are happy to pay for it.

So… as you think about your product development and marketing from now on, remember, Ready, Aim, Fire!

You can buy your copy of Rob’s book here: http://www.amazon.com/You-Build-Will-They-Come/dp/047056363X

From the desk of liber8yourbusiness.  Business mentors and experts in small business exit strategies.  Based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Hiding under your duvet vs making a difference. What to do when you’ve had a crap week…

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Have you ever had a day when you wake up wondering what on earth you are doing?  Being positive, visionary and inspired all the time can be exhausting.  Sometimes you just feel small, insignificant and just plain tired.  I had a week like this recently.  Some tough stuff happened and my resolve to live a happy, meaningful life took a back seat to a desire to pull the duvet over my head and shut it all out.  Of course I couldn’t stay there for long.  I’ve never been someone to hide from my problems.  But it can be hard to get yourself motivated again after a downer week.

Here’s something I did for myself to give me the kick up the proverbial I really needed.   I thought about my core life purpose which is “To live a wealthy, healthy, happy life whilst making a difference to as many people as I can”.  And then I started thinking about the people to whose life I have already made a difference.  I didn’t do this to stroke my ego but to remind myself that my life is worthy and to re-connect with my sense of pride and passion.  And you know what… it worked!

My list started really for me after I attended a workshop with Robert Kiyosaki in 1991 (for those who know my story, you’ll know this was a life changing event for  me).  From that moment on I began to make decisions to do things that not only made me wealthy and happy, but also changed other people’s lives for the better as I went.

My list included thousands of people who attended the courses I promoted after I became Robert’s promoter in New Zealand.  People who I’ve seen go on to do amazing things with their lives and in turn make a difference to thousands of people around them.  It included the people I’ve employed, such as the young creative people I brought into my advertising agency and trained, who have gone on to have stellar careers in advertising and design.  It included the thousand plus business people who have attended my talks, done my programmes or worked with me to turn their businesses around and grow their dreams.  It included the people these people employ and add value to as they grow.  It included the friends and family members I’ve helped when they’ve been down or in need.  It included (of course) my children who I gave life to and then given them the security of knowing how much I love them.

I tell you this not to boast but to suggest that you too will have a long list of ways your life has made a difference.  And when the low days hit (which they will, unless you are less than human) it can be a huge motivator to review the things you’ve done that you are proud of.

Then of course, life isn’t over by a long shot.  My goal to make a difference to as many people as possible only gets more important to me as I get older.  Now I can see the avenues clearly ahead of me by which to achieve this.  I’m writing my book to get my business lessons and experiences out to as many small business owners as I can.  I have my mentoring programme to promote for the same reason.  I have talks to give and people to work with, hoping each time that every person I touch in some way then goes on to make a difference with their own success.  I have my life experiences to share and my gifts with which to share them.  I have my friends and family to love and nuture.  I have  my children to be a role model to and help them make a difference in their own way.  I have a powerful reason to get up each day and live a happy, healthy life.

Be gone duvet cover.  Be gone self doubt.  Let’s all celebrate the things we’ve achieved and look forward to the achievements yet to come.