Are you preoccupied with doubts and worries? Got stuck and can’t seem to move forward? Certified Business Confidence Coach and business expert, Barbara Iuliano, talks about how to win over our wavering thoughts and negative mentality.

Key Questions Asked:

What would Barbara say to somebody who has not discovered that they are a strong gift with them? What were the difficulties she faced when transitioning from training programs to an actual business? What was her perception on getting a proper training for business before officially getting into it? How did she get her first client? What steps can she recommend business owners take in order to boost their confidence? How to do visualization effectively? Why should confidence go before anything else? Are there any pitfall that business owners must watch out for in boosting their confidence? What things could she have done more or less in the past? What is the perfect mindset for every business owners to succeed?

Highlights of the Lessons Learned:

Self-confidence is the most significant trait to succeed. The “Inner belief of I can do it” is the key to realize whatever has been planned ahead. In order to win over the wavering thoughts, business owner needs to have a perspective that anything along the way can be very tough but he/she can surely successfully do it no matter what it takes. The main steps to boost self-confidence may vary depending on whatever aligns to an individual or a business owner, however the basics are: Be Present – this means that business owners need to affirm on what he has right now, in order to actually imagine the success that he/she wanted. With that, they will be able to affirm that “I was there, and now I am here”, which implies a success indeed. Gratefulness – always be thankful and recognize or appreciate so you will be able to concentrate on the positive feelings rather negative ones. Meditate and Visualize – business owner must develop clear goals and he must fill his/her imagination of the best or phenomenal results of the set goals. Stepping Out of Comfort Zone – means you will never know what you can do – if you never give a try. This will eliminate your fear and will make you eventually realize that everything is possible as long as there is perseverance and courage to do it. In coaching, coaches should visualize positive or extraordinary results and take these as a“mission” for them to be accountable to achieve the expected results. Self-confidence must be paired with courage. This means avoid perfectionism as this will hamper one’s thoughts.

Business Success :

Internet marketing has been attested as one of the most effective ways to reach your target market. Barbara successfully marketed her services through:

Social media, e.g. Facebook Low-cost trainings, imparting knowledge Organic and paid marketing

The basic practices that every business owner should consider are:

Do MORE of your PMS (Promotion, Selling, and Marketing) Do LESS of perfectionism. Do not worry, clear doubts, and never get stuck in what you want.

What is a rational investment and how does it affect your business? What is the perfect mindset you need in order to succeed? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, London-based business coach, Andy Sharma, shares what every business owner should know about how to turn great ideas into successful ventures.

Key Questions Asked:

What prompted Andy Sharma to decide to move from the corporate world into starting his own business? What is the first skill that every business owner needs to have? What is the second skill that needs to be mastered? Why are these particular skills are very important? How do you go about picking the right coach? How does clear, written down plans and goals play a significant role in one’s journey to success Why does ability to prioritize business matters and actions extremely important? How to act and engage in the ‘value proposition’ habit? What should be the perfect mindset of a business owner when seeking assistance of a coach?

Highlights of the Lessons Learned:

A. Importance of a Business Coach

Coach is a business owner’s confidant in terms of the status of a venture. Someone whom you can talk about external views that will open up new ideas. A counsel who helps business owners get all the transitions. A mentor who takes accountability for your success no matter what it takes. Somebody who is better than you to take you forward.

Hence, a business coach should be one of the investments that every business owner needs to engage at.

B. Winning Habits to Develop for Long-term Growth

Another essential investment that every business owners need to maintain are the winning habits such as below:

Have a clear written down plans and goals.

Every business owner needs to have clarity on what they are looking to achieve – both in their business and personal life. With this, they will be able to execute things in a timely-based as it would be easy for them to break it down into action points.

This means translating the vision and the mission into a workable action plan with timelines.

Work time efficiently.

Business owners should invest more time in most valuable and most profitable activities of the business such as marketing, value proposition, etc.

Employ Skilling Metrics (eg. high-skill or low-skill, high-fun or low-fun) – in order to figure out which tasks or activities that a business owner needs to focus on or to be hands-on at.

When taking this into perspective, tasks that do not require a personal touch can be allocated to the team members or outsourcing service providers for optimal costs.

Focus on value proposition.

Business owners need to establish the value of the product or services the business provides; and they need to resolve the challenges that caused pain in the market.

With this, pricing would be competitive in the market – thus generating more revenues of the business.

Know the numbers inside out.

They need to calculate how much money they make and how much they are working. This basically considers the simple formula: Revenue = Sales – (Labor cost + Time cost).

Develop leadership goals and employ the right people for the team.

This promotes engagement of business owner and employee. Also, this aligns vision, mission and objectives of the business – as what a coaching relatively does.

Create systems and process to improve the efficiency and productivity.

This can be achieved by application of KPIs which serves as the balance check.

C. Perfect mindset and Comfort Zone Administration

Mindset and comfort zone are said to be the biggest challenges that every business owners need to manage accordingly.

According to Andy Sharma, when initiating a business, the mindset has to be shifted as a boss – who assumes responsibility for the business and to the people working with you...

Ever wonder what it really takes to achieve your greatest dreams? What are the skills you need to have and develop within yourself? How does your experience become an integral part in realizing your ways to achieve your goals? What are the fears that hamper in achieving it? Business expert and success coach, Tom Ingrassia teaches how to clearly unveil your true vision in order to start working on your dreams and then realize it.  

Key Questions Asked:

How did Tom make the transition from working in higher education to running his own business and now helping other business owners to succeed? How was he, as a business owner, able to achieve his goals? What was happening before the time he launched or got into the dream which he always wanted? As a coach, what processes or steps can business owners take in order to achieve their full potential? What stops people from going ahead in pursuing their dreams? How did he navigate around his fears in order to succeed?

Highlights of the Lessons Learned:

The critical skills that every business owners need to have and develop are mainly: 1) the ability to quickly identify the opportunity in front of them; and 2) the courage to accept the opportunities no matter what failures it may take. Tom’s 25-years experience in Higher Education served as a “training ground” in developing skills and acquiring knowledge – which are essentials for every business owners in shaping up and realizing their dreams. IT paved the way for his journey to becoming a business expert and coach through the following:

Developing communication, time management, and organizational skills Helping people to identify what they want and teach them the necessary steps to pursue them Keeping his dreams alive by connecting and keeping in touch with the people who are doing what he wanted to do. Maintaining an attitude of never losing the sight of that dream.

Tom Ingrassia uses a holistic approach and step-by-step process in helping business owners to position themselves in full potential by:

Visualization using sub-conscious mind.

Each business owner should create a clear picture of who they want to be and what they want to achieve.

Self-assessment.

Identify what he currently does in his life which is not working; why he is allowing that to happen; and recognize the things that work which either require focus or less attention.

Establishing your goals.

Affix a firm deadline as to when to achieve those goals.

Accountability

Have a partner who will remind and be accountable to achieve your goals. A coach, a mentor or a business partner will definitely do.

This step-by-step process helps business owners achieve their goals and live their dreams. It is true to the saying that “see what you want, get what you want.”

The two commonly identified fears of people which keep them from pursuing their dreams are:

Fear of going into the unknown or “failure.” Stress out of demands on our time.

In order to overcome these fears, business owners should be able to foresee and anticipate the conditions or look at the circumstances they want to be in – so they can combat and rise above those fears. The stress due to the huge demand of time could be prevented by restructuring things and setting proper timings on when to attend each task and when to relax. Stress-free business ecosystem promotes productivity and efficiency as wells as healthy business relationships between business owners and clients. Business owners should practice this stress-free environment as personal wellness so that they can resonate their strong state of mind and healthy emotional state to the people they are helping with. Combating the fears of failure and stress would definitely bring out each business owner’s best which will eventually lead to success – and achieving their dreams...

Starting up a business? Have you considered the steps you need to take in order for your brand to stand out in the market? Business start-up expert and brand maker, Nedalee Thomas reveals what it takes to launch your business successfully and hit your target market, all while overcoming the challenges typically experienced by business start-ups.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Nedalee start selling in the market? What were the steps she had to take in order to build her brand? How was she able to pay all her debts? What advice would she give business owners who are on the verge of giving up?

Highlights of the Lessons Learned:

Establishing Her Brand:

Nedalee Thomas and her husband built their business brand from the ground up by fully understanding its potential and realizing that. She had clearly known the edge or advantage of their product over their competitors. Nedalee used the right medium of marketing to reach a wider market:

Online marketing (creating websites) Social media (eg. Filming videos, Facebook, etc.) Set-up distribution lines (more dealers) Educating and training people to strategically claim medical benefits to make it more saleable.

Overcoming Challenges: 

Nedalee Thomas had experienced financial constraints (which are very common among start-up businesses), she chose to borrow a capital in order to continue to grow their business. It is very necessary to have a sound judgment on the feasibility of the business growth with the implementation of a proper business plan and proper allocation of budget for cost and other expenses. Business owners should look at how and when would be the right time to settle liabilities. Social responsibility, especially towards employees, should be given importance for the business to truly succeed. Paying to tithe and doing charitable works has been one of the biggest secrets to Nedalee’s success and what she believes will carry her further on.

Outsourcing: 

Outsourcing services enable business start-ups owners to draw a focus on the most important things and activities to improve the business by earning a lot more time. Outsourcing services offer more and better options to business start-ups owners on the required materials or productivity – without compromising the costs.

What is the best way to have a balanced life while working your way to the top? Scotland based healing expert Aladin Ali talks about the myth and misconceptions business owners have about this technique and how it can change their lives.

Key Questions Asked:

What is Aladin’s background? What advice would she give to business owners who are having a difficult time in their business? What are some of the misconceptions that she has come across with when it comes to Energy Healing among business owners? How can understanding Energy Healing make their life easier? What is the perfect mindset business owners must have in order to be open to Spiritual and Energy Healing?

  Highlights of Lessons Learned:

You are not just a physical body that you see but is something that is moving and when you align yourself with who you really are, you begin to move very swiftly towards your goal and you’ll be able to balance your work and life. When you really tap into your energy and if you know how to use and enhance it, everything in your life happens with ease. Most business owners don’t know what energy healing is, therefore Aladin comes across as a life coach sometimes, but the more she works with them, the more they seem to want to understand energy healing. Because of social media, there’s been an increase in the awareness of energy healing. The number one reason business owners fail to get their goals is not lack of resources, rather it is themselves. Energy Healing will help business owners to understand themselves, their strength and their weaknesses by learning to tap into their energy the spiritual leadership side of it, understanding themselves becoming more aware and becoming more motivated and being more passionate about what they do. Business owners really need to be open to trying new things in order to really be successful.

How should you go about hiring or firing people? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, US-based recruiting expert, Tatiana Becker reveals a few insightful tips and advice on how to effectively find the right candidate to join your team.

Key Questions Asked:

What challenges did Tatiana have had to overcome while making the transition from being an employee to running her own agency? What sort of mindset did you have to adopt when you’re transitioning? What advice would she give business owners who are in their first year of operations and are having slight difficulties? What is the actual process of recruitment? How do Tatiana and her team go about coming up with the ideal person to join the team? What advice would Tatiana give to business owners regarding compensation plan? What are some of the dangers of being very slow in responding inquiries especially when you’re doing it for the very first time? What mistakes does she see business owners are making when it comes to the hiring process? What criteria should they use? How does Tatiana market her business? If she were to start all over again, what would Tatiana do differently? What is her approach to letting people go? What tools does she use to run your virtual staff?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Tatiana’s Journey

Tatiana has always been an entrepreneurial person, but as far as running the staffing agency is concerned, the biggest change in her mindset revolves around becoming more aware of the landscape on the whole. Tatiana believes that having your own metric for success is crucial for every business owner.

Expert’s Advice

Keep your head up because every business has difficulties in the first year, and if you don’t then you’ve just picked a business that is actually probably not very interesting. You need to start from day one knowing that you’re going to have to face trials and tribulations. When you hit bumps in the road you need to be able to re-steer your staff and they need to see that you have a really calculated way of going about it so that they totally get on-board.

Process

Tatiana and her team find that they have the most success with clients that have a really clear picture of the type of person that they want to hire and the responsibilities that person is going to have, and also have the bandwidth to be able to respond to that person in a quick manner. Business owners and recruitment agencies need to know how to evaluate each candidate against themselves so that they can quickly make a decision. The most important thing is to understand what the person is going to be doing so that you can figure out the skill set that you will need in order to support that. Great fan of the site glassdoor.com which is an accurate place for a small company to find out what market rate is for a certain type of position in their area.

Mistake

Some companies are a little too inflexible as far as that picture of the perfect person that they’re looking for.

Criteria

The number one thing business owners should look at is metrics, ask the agency about what they see as success.

Marketing

The most business that Tatiana and her recruitment team are getting come from clients recommending them to other potential clients, they also have a marketing expert that works with them. It’s also very important to show gratitude and to take care of the people that take care of you, that way you will easily get referrals without spending too much or anything at all.

Suggestions

Tatiana recommends business owners to go into the thing that they really love and in the area where they really feel like they’re an expert. Another thing is that’s also important to consider is having the right people.

On Letting Go

The most important thing is letting people know where they stand all the time and...

How can your business stand out from all the rest? This episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast features Jane Bromley who talks about what it takes to grow a company in today’s world. Jane is a well-respected strategy consultant who coined the term “Blueprint for Growth” and showed companies like Hewlett Packard, Vodafone, and Intel how to remove barriers to growth and helped them achieve long-term success.

Key Questions Asked:

What is Honeypot Value Proposition? Other than focusing on the value proposition, what other areas would Jane recommend that business owners focus on if they’re to expand or to grow? In her experience with talking to business owners, how can you get business leaders to get to that point where they inspire the rest of their organizations? Where does Jane see business start-ups go wrong when they attempt to grow your business? What challenges has Jane personally faced? What mindset should business owners have if they are to remain in the business for a long time?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Blueprint For Growth

Honeypot Value Proposition: Most companies think that they are different but in the eyes of the customers, they’re all the same. Value proposition makes them stand out from all other competitors. Businesses should come up with a differentiation so that in the eyes of the customers they add so much value that they significantly remove or reduce a pain that the customer is suffering from. One other key that’s very important for businesses is to make sure that they know where it’s headed. When working with a client, Jane typically starts with what she calls a Blueprint for Growth Bench-marking, which allows people and companies to know exactly where they stand compared to others. It looks at each of the 9 characteristics that drive growth and then it shows them exactly where they stand and what works and where they need to focus on.

Common Mistakes and Challenges

They don’t get clear about what they really want. They don’t get close enough to their customers, therefore they don’t understand the pain of those customers. Most businesses don’t even define their target customers precisely enough, ending up trying to target so many people, but if you try to target everyone, you target no one. Jane’s personal challenge: Taking the step to employ people in different ways, however, there are good ways of doing that now. Other challenges: Being frustrated by ups and downs of businesses.

Perfect Mindset

It’s a journey, enjoying the journey is absolutely the key. Must be customer centric Tracking progress in order to learn

Are your business practices actually helping you create better results? How do you know exactly if you’re doing the right thing for your business? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, leather craft designer and business owner, Whitney Corley, debunks some myths and misconceptions she has seen other business owners follow over the years. Whitney is the muscle and brains behind the handmade leather crafts called Corley & Hound, creating a more flexible lifestyle for her and her family while making a living out of sheer talent and passion.

Key Questions Asked:

What prompted Whitney into making a business for herself? What advice would Whitney give to somebody who were in her shoes before she decided to work for herself? What challenges did she face when she finally decided to leave it altogether? How much preparation did she do before she launched into leaving what she does completely? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to adopt when she was making the transition? How did Whitney get her first client? What misconceptions on business start-up that Whitney have come across with? How do business owners get past the negative mental state? What other beliefs does she see among business owners that are actually a misconception? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to have in order to run a successful business? If she were to do business all over again, what would she do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Advice from Whitney: You should start small, you’re ultimately going to end up where you’re supposed to be. And if you’re not able to immediately quit your job right now, just start small, see where it goes from there, eventually it will grow and you’ll be able to stop doing what’s not working for you more and more. Before working full time on her business, Whitney prepared for what she’ll need on the creative side. However, she did not prepare enough for the marketing side of her business. Yeukai advises start-up business owners to take time to find a mentor before you actually launch your business, clarify what steps you need to take and what needs to be done before heading on to do it. Working for yourself definitely takes more responsibility as you have to be responsible for every action that you make. Whitney’s advice for start-up business owners: You have to have total faith in yourself that you can do it, do not listen to anybody else that may have doubts. You must believe that you can do it, and it may not be overnight – it will probably take some time, but do not lose that faith that you will make it.

Myths and Misconceptions

One misconception that Whitney has seen is that starting up a business is really hard. And while it can be hard, what’s really hard is keeping a positive mental state. For those people who get stuck on having a negative state of mind, if you feel like you have worked so hard and you still have not done anything well, it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, just do the best you can with what time you have. Another misconception that Whitney has come across with is that you don’t have to personalize every order. When it comes to marketing, Whitney has now perfected Etsy’s systems; she has been working on making her product sale-able on Pinterest. Given the chance to start all over again, Whitney would change the way she prepared, she would spend less time creating all of the different little items that she provides, and spend more time marketing instead of creating, or understanding how to market.

What copy-writing trends do you faithfully follow in your business? Listen to this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast as a copywriting consultant and marketing expert, Ling Wong, talks about the common copy-writing mistakes business owners blindly follow today. With her vast experience in content creation and marketing, Ling shares a few tips that will help business owners get the best result in producing valuable copy for their audience.

Key Questions Asked:

What would Ling say to somebody who wants to do something else but is scared to do leave their job or whatever they’re doing right now? How did she get her initial client? If Ling were to do it all over again knowing what she knows now, what would she do differently? How important is strategy compared to being tactical? What are some of the common mistakes solo entrepreneurs and small business owners make when it comes to copywriting? What is copywriting? Are there any techniques that are useful in adding personality to a copy?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Ling advises start-up business owners to really understand their risk tolerance. She believes that it all comes down to our own level of comfort, therefore we shouldn’t justify cutting the corner and jumping off the cliff if that’s not in our personality in the first place. Yeukai shares some insights as well, saying that in the beginning, we don’t really need our customers and that it is only after corresponding and spending time with them that we narrow down exactly what they need and how are we going to be providing that service. There’s no amount of research and survey that can take the place of actually being there and having a conversation and building relationship with your clients. Given the chance to do it all over again, knowing what she knows now, Ling would be more disciplined and really get clear on her message, her convictions and what she’s really good at; and then implement good discipline and discernment on how to apply this message. Tactics and strategy go hand in hand because tactics without strategy is just busy work. Your strategy also needs to be in alignment of what you set out to be, what you conviction and message is. It is the bridge between what you really want to create and the execution. Regarding tactics, Ling says that it does get hard because there’s always new tactics. And while you can definitely implement all the tactics that’s out there, at some point you just have to be smart about it.

Common Mistakes

The first common mistake business owners do when it comes to creating a copy is they try to look around too much that their copy tends to lack focus. Another mistake Ling sees business owners make when it comes to copywriting is making it less personal and more generic, and blindly following formulas and templates and even copying competitions. Ling’s way of writing copy is all about making a connection and creating resonance with the readers. Two of Ling’s favorite techniques in copywriting and creating content is what she calls, Purposeful Storytelling and Responsible Vulnerability. A lot of people are afraid of offending people on their copy. Ling suggests an exercise and other tips business owners must do to publish a copy that works for them even though it might be offending to some people.

What needs to happen internally when you’re in a transitional phase? Transformational teacher and empowerment expert, Jody Swift, talks with Yeukai about the many aspects of transformation, especially for individuals who are planning on or are in the process of building their own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How does Jody work with business owners today? What would be her advice to business owners to get themselves back on the track? How can business owners engage in becoming aware of themselves? Is there anything that people are doing which they think are having a positive impact yet, in reality, they are not making a good impact at all when it comes to reaching their goals as business owners? How did Jody get her first client? How does she market her business today? How does Jody go about picking the right people to work with?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:                                                           

Jody’s Journey

Jody helps people who are challenged of being two people to figure out their why from the beginning. Once you figure out what your love languages are and what drives you, you can figure out whether or not they are being fulfilled in your workplace. People stay where they are when they are being rewarded in some way. Jody recommends two pieces of literature for business owners to pick up: The ‘5 Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman and ‘The Passion Test’ by Chris Attwood and Janet Attwood. So many times we’re waiting to talk, we’re not actually listening to what somebody has to say… Being able to communicate where we’re at with whomever we’re with makes a big difference in terms of the success of that communication piece.

Becoming Aware

Business owners can get so wrapped up in the how we forget about the initial intention of looking for what they want to get out of the business. When she’s doing goal setting with her clients, Jody suggests that they rid themselves of the burden of the how because it will come if you focus on the end result. Jody markets her business mainly through word of mouth, Facebook and other social media platforms, and sending a newsletter to the people she meets.

Expert’s Advice

Jody believes in the power of attraction. When it comes to people to work with, she is looking for particular personality types – the really open-minded people who see possibility in a number of different things. Jody advises business owners to form their tribe. Get clear on your vision and then form your tribe, find the people who believe in you and who believe in your vision, and the rest will come. Another advice Jody gives to people is to continue to educate yourself on you – not just on business but on you, and how you tick.