Self Employed Success

Laura Berman Fortgang has a new book!  “The Little Book on Meaning: Why We Crave It, How We Create It” comes out today and it’s exactly what we need in our lives right now.

From Amazon.com: “In The Little Book on Meaning, Fortgang reveals that while our hunger for a “meaningful” life can be enormous, our desire for meaning is usually satiated by small, bite-size morsels of meaning—the little, almost incidental events or “achievements” that comprise the fabric of our lives. According to Fortgang, meaning is where you look for it and through tenderly drawn stories from her own life and the lives of those around her, she shows readers how they too can peek around corners to discover the small elements of their lives that truly matter.”

Laura is launching the book TODAY, so buy your copy now! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiQV0oTyd98

Watch the videos in this series:  #1 of 3 and #2 of 3 and #3 of 3.

x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae-VJ_lauCw

(I love what he said about “weighing over 200 pounds by CHOICE!” Watch the first minute of this and you’ll see what he said about the REASON he said it was his choice.)

Watch the videos in this series:  #1 of 3 and #2 of 3 and #3 of 3.

x

Like a dog on the scent, I keep my nose to the ground, looking for signs of a strengthening or weakening economy. I’m not looking at large, macro, worldwide events, but instead using my own eyes and ears to determine how the average person is reacting to things.

All around me I’m seeing signs of economic life:

• In the past month, whenever we go to restaurants (even on the traditionally slow restaurant days), the places are crowded. Not as crowded as they were a year ago, with lines snaking out the door, but tables are full and waitstaff is bustling.
• Where I am seeing lines form is at the movies. In January and February, you could walk through the door and right up to the ticket window. Not so anymore. Short lines, but lines none the less.
• I keep close track of people who steal my website text for their own websites. Over the past six months, the instances of plagiarism had decreased, but within the past month I’m seeing a resurgence. This means people are creating new websites, which is a good sign. The fact that they’re comfortable stealing someone else’s text to promote their own business tells me they won’t be in business for long with low ethics and lack of creativity and skill leading them to their demise.
• I’m getting many more calls for coaching and consulting. People are understandably cautious on finding just the right person to help them with their dreams and challenges, but once they find the right fit, they’re willing to invest in growing their businesses. Month over month, I’m seeing a 10% increase in revenue for the past three months.
• My clients are also reporting a small uptick in revenue, and more prospect calls.

Could it be a thawing economy? I hope so!

What does this mean for you? Keep your eyes and ears open, make sure all your systems are in place, and make sure you’re ready for an upswing in business. Now is the time to clean out your office, get a filing system in place (AND everything filed away properly), create intake forms for customer information, and generally automate your office and financial systems. In this way you’ll be ready when the surge begins instead of getting caught with your systems in disarray.

Have you seen this wonderful, funny, inspiring video on YouTube yet?

Meet Susan Boyle, a 47-year old woman from “a collection of villages” in Scotland. Everyone in the audience of Britian’s Got Talent laughed at her when she said she wanted to be a successful singer. By the end of her performance, they were cheering and crying and giving her a standing ovation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

This same thing happened in 2007, when Paul Potts took the stage. I wrote about it here in my blog and you can watch his triumphant performance and be inspired as well.

These two people show us one very important trait that we should culivate: they didn’t let others tell them “You can’t do that” or “You can’t have what you want in life.” They took the bull by the horns and shouted to the world, “I have something to share with the world and I’m not going to rest until I get what I want!”

What do YOU want?  Go out and get it! Don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way.