Self Employed Success

From Philospher Notes:

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

–Vernon Howard

I’ve posted nine new articles about mastermind groups on The Success Alliance website:

• Why Mastermind Group Guidelines Matter
• Getting Your Group to Set and Keep Goals
• Inviting Guest Speakers to Your Group
• Great Books for Mastermind Groups to Read Together
• 10 Reasons Why Mastermind Groups Fail
• Staying Connected Between Mastermind Meetings
• Start With a Core Group Then Build From There
• How Many Members Should Be In a Mastermind Group?
•  Mastermind For 90 Days

I hope you enjoy these articles and find them helpful with your own mastermind group!

http://www.thesuccessalliance.com/articles.html

“Success”

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it

If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it,
Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

–by Berton Braley

I made an amazing discovery last month. Like you, I’m a busy business owner. Yet I need to continually learn new marketing techniques, new business ideas, etc. in order to maintain my “expert” status in my field.

Where was I going to find time to do all that reading, listening, and studying???

As with most successful projects, lifelong learning is about two things: structure and discipline.

If you took six hours a week to learn something new (read a book, listen to an audio program, take a teleclass), you’d have completed 312 hours of learning new material a year. That’s equivalent to over SIX college-level courses.

If you want to be known as an expert, you must be willing to invest six hours a week to “sharpening the saw” of your knowledge.

The way I do it is this: I’m taking off every Friday for the next year, to read, take classes, learn. From 9:00 – 3:00 I’ll read a book to read, listen to an audio program on MP3, watch a DVD, read websites, or take classes.

A colleague of mine uses her exercise time to listen to audios. Another colleague signs up for one class a month, each and every month of the year. One of my clients takes a weekly trip to the library (“The only place I can find some quiet!” he says) and reads a book for a few hours.

You can do this, too. Maybe you take one hour a day as your Learning Time. Maybe you schedule one day per week. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you schedule the time into your calendar and religiously adhere to your learning schedule.

When you think “300 hours” it’s overwhelming.

When you think “1 hour a day” it’s empowering!

Add Mastermind Groups to your business and watch it grow!

There is synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement that participants bring to a Mastermind Group. The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion. Mastermind participants act as catalysts for growth, devil’s advocates and supportive colleagues.

Class begins July 30

In this three-week teleclass you will learn how to:

• Choose which type of Mastermind Group to create
• Determine if your Mastermind group will be free or paid membership
• Market to attract members
• Choose participants
• Construct different types of meeting agendas
• Create group policies and procedures
• Determine your role
• Deal with difficult members
• Tips for facilitating discussions at meetings

Kate Sanner, a student from this class says, “As someone who already offers individual and group coaching as part of my business, it was very useful to learn from Karyn this additional tool of Mastermind Groups to add to the service line of my business. Karyn provided incredible value in this class with her step-by-step process, educational materials, and dynamic teaching style.”

SCHEDULE:
This three-week teleclass begins July 30, 2008.
All class sessions are 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM eastern.

Classes will be recorded, so if you miss a session, you will be able to download the audio recording of the live class and listen to it at your leisure.

BONUS:
Once you register for the How to Create and Run a Mastermind Group class, you may list your mastermind group for free at The Mastermind Group Finder – The Success Alliance website, which receive 16,000 visitors annually looking for mastermind groups. You will receive an email with instructions on how to list your mastermind group once you register.

Registration fee: $110

To learn more about this class, and to register:

http://www.passionforbusinesslearning.com/mastermind/

x