Accidental Entrepreneur's Guide to Self-Employment Success

Out on a limb: Why you should pray for your clients

2010-07-25T21:44:56Z

Okay, I'm going a bit out on a limb today. And I hope you will stick with me whatever your spiritual leanings, because this article can prevent burnout, improve client results, and increase your confidence and motivation. And, as you'll see, it isn't nearly as woo-woo as you might think.

First, let me say that having clients is not all roses. You work hard to attract and serve them, and then you are confronted with the reality of working with them from day to day. And that brings certain challenges that you won't see talked about in most self-employment circles.

Challenges like becoming so invested in them that you start leaking energy. Feeling entangled. Even becoming co-dependent. Eventually, you can burn-out and feel disconnected.

Then there is the challenge of helping clients get the results they came to you for. How can you know your work is good enough? How can you help them be better partners in the work? (Because you can't do it by yourself, you know.)

And finally, how do you maintain your motivation and confidence through the ups and downs of everyday life?

I'm here to tell you that prayer and meditation can help you meet every one of these challenges.

This is a no woo-woo zone
I've had my share of non-ordinary experiences. I rely on alternate ways of knowing, like intuition, sensing into the environment, and synchronicity. And I pray for all my clients. But I'm impatient when woo-woo is presented without a foundation in science.

And there is scientific evidence for the effectiveness of both meditation and prayer.

Research has shown that meditation causes beneficial changes in your brain and body. It can entrain your brain and heart, bringing peace, heightened awareness, and the ability to think more clearly when under pressure. It lowers blood pressure and improves respiration. It reduces cortisol levels. (Cortisol is a chemical released by your body under stress. High levels are physically and emotionally depleting.)

Meditation is a good thing.

Prayer is practical

Larry Dossey has pioneered esearch into the effectiveness of intentional prayer. It appears that prayer operates even over a distance to speed physical healing and ease emotional pain.

There's another practical side to prayer that makes it indispensable to me. When you pray, you are letting go of the idea that you are solely responsible for outcomes. You are loosening the reins of attachment. This allows creative possibilities to enter the mind that had been hyper-focused on a problem.

So prayer, too, is a good thing.

You don't need to be religious to meditate or pray
While both meditation and prayer are keystones of the world's wisdom traditions, you don't have to belong to any particular church or sect to use them. All you have to do is take action, and it is very simple to begin.

Begin meditating by sitting still
You can begin to meditate by simply sitting still and in silence for 5 minutes. Set a timer. Your thoughts are likely to be all over the place. That's okay. When you notice you are thinking, turn your attention to your breath. Repeat.

If you practice daily, you'll gradually find that your mind is quieter. Your body more quickly returns to calm when stressed. You'll ride the ups and downs of life more skillfully.

Naturally, there is lots more you can do to deepen your practice. Just Google "meditation, beginner," and you'll find lots of help.

Begin praying by setting an intention
A simple way to pray is to dedicate your day to the well being of a specific person or group of persons. Become quiet. Think of the person or persons (or cause, if you prefer) that you would like to support. Offer up a simple prayer dedicating your work to that. It may take you only moments.

You don't need to know to what or whom you are praying. You don't need to believe in this. Just do it.

Again, there is a lot more you can learn to deepen your prayer practice. What I want for you today is the realization that you can begin with these bare essentials. And beginning makes all the difference.

What's your experience?
Please share your experience with meditation and prayer in the comments!

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How to stop Impostor Syndrome in its tracks: 7 strategies for reclaiming confidence and motivation

2010-07-12T13:36:32Z

It happens to everybody, including the most experienced and successful people. One minute you're a player, and the next you're an impostor. A pretend expert. An embarrassing excuse for a professional.

It's called Impostor Syndrome, and it can throw you and your business for a loop. And as long as you are in the impostor story, your work does suffer. You do attract fewer clients. And you may put off getting back to the people that ask about your work because you're pretty sure you have nothing legitimate to offer.

Impostor Syndrome persists until or unless it's interrupted, often by external circumstances. You get a rave review from a client. An unexpected check arrives in the mail. The thing is, you can wait a long time for the right thing to happen. This article will show you how to interrupt Impostor Syndrome without relying on outside events.

The real roots of Impostor Syndrome
Impostor Syndrome comes from a few predictable sources: Comparing yourself with others. Obsessing about what you don't know or haven't done. Perfectionism. And freaking out when your energy takes a dip.

But the real roots of Impostor Syndrome are deeper. Understanding them shifts the entire problem and opens the way to healing.

So let's look at those real roots.

Comparison is a social activity
While it can be damaging to your confidence, comparing yourself with others isn't just a neurotic pattern. It's actually a natural and useful part of claiming your just-right place so your just-right clients can find you.

When you compare yourself to others in your field, you are assessing not just strengths and weaknesses, but also the characteristics that make you unique. You're charting your way in a community of practice. And rightly understood, all of this is essential to marketing and selling your work. (Can you say "niche"?)

What this boils down to: The root of comparison is the natural and beneficial instinct to find your tribe. It's only when comparison is taken out of context that it gives rise to Impostor Syndrome.

You've got a learning problem
I mean that as a joke. Far from a problem, you have a commendable commitment to learning. As a consequence, you are continually presented with evidence that there is something you don't know yet. And the more you learn, the more you see that you don't know.

When your commitment to learning becomes distorted, it shows up as Impostor Syndrome. But the root is not, in itself, toxic.

You're committed to being of service
Perfectionism doesn't come out of nowhere, and it's not just about fear of inadequacy. A concern with doing excellent work is also a concern about being of real service. Yes, when this concern is distorted it leads to perfectionism and Impostor Syndrome. But the root is something honorable, even beautiful.

Why good roots turn bad
If these roots of Impostor Syndrome are so good, why do they lead to something so nasty? The answer has everything to do with energy.

Some days you have oodles of energy. You're lit up from within. Motivated. Focused. Productive. This is *not* when Impostor Syndrome strikes.

Impostor Syndrome strikes when your energy drops. When you lose the creative spark. Thinking gets fuzzy. Physically, you feel dull, disoriented. That's when the otherwise beneficial roots of Impostor Syndrome become distorted.

In other words, when life happens.

Two things to understand about energy
If drops in energy are the problem, managing energy is the solution. And that means understanding two things.

Energy fluctuates, and it's not personal. Everything in nature follows certain rhythms. Energy increases in the morning, decreases at bed time. Energy increases when you are nourished and decreases when you are depleted.
It's not rocket science. But it is complicated by the fact that, as a human being, you place interpretations on these fluctuations. If your energy is low when you think it *should* be high, you may interpret this as inadequacy.

It's not the energy fluctuation itself that causes the problem, it's what you believe it means.

The second thing to understand about energy is that you can work with or against natural rhythms. You don't need to be their victim. If you choose, you can work with your natural rhythms to experience more flow. And Impostor Syndrome doesn't strike when you're in flow.

Voila! Strategies for dissolving Impostor Syndrome
Understanding these things won't, in my experience, prevent Impostor Syndrome. But it will reduce the frequency, severity, and length of the attacks. And understanding these distinctions leads to the following seven strategies for dealing with Impostor Syndrome.

Strategy 1: Keep positive feedback (emails, notes) where you can look at it when your confidence sinks. Use these as evidence that you do have something to offer, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Don't argue with yourself about it; just notice that you don't always feel this way.

Strategy 2: Use The Work of Byron Katie (www.thework.com) to question stressful thoughts about being an impostor. People need you to be better than you are, is that true? Real professionals do x, y, or z. Is that true?

Strategy 3: Reach out for support. Friends and colleagues who know your value can not only reflect it back to you, they can also remind you to use strategies like these. That's one of the biggest benefits of my Master Mind group. (In fact, my friend Mark Silver reminded me of the next strategy just the other day.)

Strategy 4: Name Impostor Syndrome and own it. Nobody's "on" all the time. When you feel like an impostor who has nothing to give, you aren't, in fact, going to be churning out great content or bringing in clients like crazy. Acknowledge this and ask, "What *can* I do from this place?"

Strategy 5: Ask for spiritual support. It's hard to sustain feelings of being an impostor when you are of service. Ask God, the Universe, or the Source of your understanding to use you in a way that serves others. For all you know, your suffering right now may be enhancing your ability to serve.

Strategy 6: Remember it happens, and it's not permanent. However nasty it feels, Impostor Syndrome is temporary. (One of the things that makes it feel so bad is the contrast with those times when we dare think we are hot.) Remind yourself that this, too, will pass. It's not a commentary on your value as a human being.

Strategy 7: Practice full engagement. Make the choices that support sustained, energetic engagement in your work. Get enough rest. Eat foods that nourish you. Schedule breaks.

Above all, remember that Impostor Syndrome happens to everybody. It really doesn't say anything meaningful about who you are and what you can do in the world. And it will go away.

Looking for a way to overcome the inner obstacles to success?
Accidental Entrepreneurs are just as capable of making money as anyone else. What's in the way are two things. First is the lack of technical knowledge about marketing and sales. Second is misconceptions and limiting beliefs that keep you from taking the simple steps required for success.

The second one is the doozy.

The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur> shows you a simple, step-by-step system for undoing the internal blocks that keep you from external success. It links the inner work to practical outer work so you can make the changes you need to make to show up, serve, and prosper.

image: impostor.jpg
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Why lowering your standards helps you reach audacious goals

2010-07-09T15:39:30Z

Audacious goals are inspiring. Invigorating. And sometimes hard to wrap your mind around, which can be overwhelming. One of the best ways to manage the overwhelm is to measure your progress a day at a time.

As they say, what gets measured gets done. Measuring progress toward an audacious goal gives you momentum. It helps stave off bright shiny object syndrome. It keeps you focused.

But there's a shadow side to measuring progress, and that is what bestselling author (and my good friend) Jennifer Louden calls the "stifling pit of perfectionism."

When perfectionism strikes, nothing you do seems good enough. Baby steps seem insignificant and giant steps send you right back to overwhelm. Measurement turns into a whip with which you beat yourself into a quivering mass of insufficiency.

It isn't pretty.

Aim high but lower your standards
The poet William Stafford set an audacious goal: To write a poem a day for a year. Robert Bly asked him how he did it. His answer? "I lowered my standards." And that's how to measure progress toward an audacious goal, sans whip.

Lowering your standards doesn't mean compromising your values or doing substandard work. It means kindly and realistically choosing increments of progress that you can do on an ordinary day. Not a day when the planets are in perfect alignment, but a day filled with the usual slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Lowering your standards means naming the tiniest step you can take toward your audacious goal and measuring that. And not just measuring it, but declaring it good enough. In fact, declaring that it's plenty. (A coaching client dubbed this the "good-and-plenty" method.)

Train your brain to recognize good-and-plenty
Some of us have a hard time recognizing good-enough when we see it. Baby steps seem insignificant compared to the size of the audacious goal. We compare ourselves with other people, who always seem to be more accomplished, more productive, more together. It feels like lowering our standards will put us out of the game.

When you don't recognize good-and-plenty, your brain becomes habituated to believing that you aren't being or doing enough. It doesn't matter how much you argue with that crazy-making assessment. When your brain slips into that insufficiency groove, you're stuck.

Unless you train your brain to make a new groove. The "good and plenty" groove. The groove in which tiny steps are clear and sufficient progress to your audacious goal. Which gives you the courage and focus to keep on keeping on.

Six steps to training your brain
In her ebook, The Satisfaction Finder, the divine Ms. Louden lays out six steps to arriving at good-and-plenty standards, or what she calls "conditions of enoughness." Here's an overview.

STEP ONE: Make space. Before you can find good-and-plenty, you need to make room for the craziness. Not embrace it, but give it space. After all it's squeezing its way into your awareness anyway. Giving it space actually reduces the pressure.

STEP TWO: Name your prize. What do you want? To have more consistent income? To finish your ebook? To get your work into a certain gallery or shop?

STEP THREE: Ask yourself, "What's the simplest step I can take towards this desire?" Choose a tiny step that is specific and concrete so that even an outside observer can tell when you've completed it. Post your latest program to Twitter once a day. Work on your ebook for 30 minutes a day. Update your resume.

STEP FOUR: Add a time element. When will you complete your simple step? At lunchtime? Every day for half and hour? By noon tomorrow?

STEP FIVE: Double‐check that you can complete your step in the specified time on an *ordinary* day. As Patti Digh says, “Put down your clever and pick up your ordinary.”

STEP SIX: This is the secret sauce that makes it all work. When you complete the simple step, declare yourself satisfied. You don't have to *feel* satisfied. Just make the declaration. This trains your brain to recognize good-and-plenty.

Toward your audacious goals
I'd love for you to have–and reach–audacious goals. So it's ultra-important to me that you have the tools to get there. I've described one tool here. If it speaks you, check out Jennifer's Satisfaction Finder. It goes into detail on how to train your brain (and your heart) to recognize that you are good enough. That you've got what it takes to reach your audacious goals.

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate for Jen's work and can't recommend it too highly. She nails the inner issues that keep us from being our best selves.

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How to succeed at self-employment when you aren't a superhero, a rockstar, or a guru

2010-06-28T18:42:44Z

What if Wonder Woman's crown is too small for an ordinary mortal?

What if thinking you should be a superhero or a rockstar or a guru is actually cramping your style, keeping you small?

What if trying to do it all is ruining (harsh word, and it may be true) your biz?

It's worth thinking about.

It all began with a daily ritual (this is important later)
Lately I've been steadfast in a daily ritual: meditation, Focusing (www.focusingresources.org), and prayer. When I Focus, I drop inside and let my body show me what's cooking underneath my regular awareness. It's like a check-in, only more complete.

Today, what showed up was pressure around my brow with the associated image of a too-tight Wonder Woman's crown.

A super hero's crown too tight? That was weird. but I sat with it and here's what I got.

You're actually bigger than a superhero
With all the noise about successful people being rockstars and gurus these days, it's easy to get seduced into believing your need to be some kind of super hero to succeed.

When the truth is you're already bigger than a superhero, a rockstar, or a guru.

Believing that only superheros succeed keeps you small, because it squeezes out all the foibles and quirks and talents that make you the unique gift to the Universe that you are. When you believe you're supposed to have super powers, the powers you do have are crammed into the margins. You're so focused on what you are not, so busy comparing yourself to others, that you lose touch with the brilliance you're designed to manifest.

It doesn't feel like you're bigger than a superhero. It feels like you aren't big enough. Cool enough. Connected enough to succeed at more than a middling level. You never get to experience yourself as gloriously effective and gifted.

Surprise: you don't have to get out of costume
My first thought about Wonder Woman's crown was to yank it off. But I realized that yanking off a super-tight crown would hurt, which seemed like a move in the wrong direction. Somehow, the way to relief and integration had to be different, though it took a few minutes to find it.

So I sat until I sensed that the crown would be looser if the tiny muscles around my face and head softened. I imagined gentling myself, relaxing, and receiving--here's the cool part-- support.

Support is everywhere
Mmmmm... Sweet support. Not distraction or hiding to escape the pressure to succeed, but simple, always available support.

Support from rituals like the one I was practicing in that moment. Support from eating well, not because I should, but because I'm receiving nourishment. The support of spending time with friends, of asking for and receiving help from colleagues, of breathing when I am anxious or wired.

You can keep the costume
My first thought was that once you relaxed into support, you were supposed to take off the crown. But I saw that you can stay in costume once you settle into support. It's no longer a constraint and a judgment. It's a playful way to express yourself in the world just the way you are. An archetype that, well, supports instead of impedes you.

Relaxing is not escaping
Relaxing into support is not the same as escaping pressure through distraction, contraction, or hiding. It's not numbing yourself with eating, computer games, or oversleeping. (All of which I know intimately.)

It's about waking up to what's already there for you, even when the chips are down. It's about trusting the resources and support you do have instead of straining to be different.

Ritual is the royal road to support
Relaxing into support is easy when all is well. But Wonder Woman's crown isn't a problem when things are going your way. What you need is access to support when you're tired and discouraged. When you're feeling less-than.

And that's where ritual comes in. Simple daily rituals connect you with support, even when you don't feel inspired or connected. Rituals won't always cheer you up or give you energy, but they will keep the channel open.

When the channel of support is open, the down times are shorter and you learn more from them. It's a bit easier to detach from your inner critic. You don't take the bleakness quite so personally.

You're all the super hero you ever need
You have what it takes to do more than middling work. To earn more than a middling income. You don't need to be any bigger than you are to enjoy the life that is just-right for you.

So go ahead, play with your super hero costume. But wear it lightly. It's not really the source of your power.

Back Story: Wonder Woman Confesses
Before Focusing today, I was worried about two projects. One is getting The Goldilocks Strategy home study kit out into the world. The other is building this year's Self Employment Telesummit.

I was big-dealing both of these. Imagining that I needed to make a big splash, be cooler and more talented and more efficient than I am.

Way to get stuck, Molly.

Now I'm downsizing the whole thing. With my crown askew I hereby invite everyone who wants more clients to check out The Goldilocks Strategy for Getting Clients that Fit Just-Right. It's a proven system for reaching the right clients with the products and services they want from you.

And, as you've come to expect, it's not your garden variety, in-your-face, marketing and sales process.

It's rather fun, affordable, and it works.

Check it out HERE.

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Miss Congeniality seeks universal peace by managing for profitability

2010-06-21T18:16:43Z

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I was sprawled on the floor of a sunny Bainbridge Island living room, thinking about blindspots.

The occasion was the annual retreat of my Brain Trust, a master mind group of five coaches. We were looking at blindspots so our businesses could become more joyful, more prosperous, and bigger contributors to the well being of all sentient beings.

So I'm thinking really, really hard and coming up all sorts of spiritual-sounding things to work on, when Michael Bungay Stanier says to me, "How about managing for profitability"?

How dare he?

Miss Congeniality wakes up to reality
One of the ways I build my business is by making friends and influencing people. It's easy for me to find ways to contribute that lead people to believe I'm smart, credible, reliable. I've got a flair for creating free content--like this article--that people want and share with others. And lest I sound to flippant, I work hard at these contributions and love that they make a difference for people.

And I love, love, love being admired and appreciated. Yum. Seems like managing for profitability to me.

Then, along comes Michael (and the other kick-butt coaches who were there that weekend), and suddenly it occurs to me that I'd made popularity so important that it was actually in the way of profitability. If I had a choice between making a profitable decision and one that would make me look good, I'd take door number two every time.

Miss Personal Growth sees the light
You may be surprised to read this, but I practically invented personal growth. When I was seven I was having insights into limiting beliefs. By eleven I was shifting paradigms with ease. Chalk it up to being fascinated with people (mostly myself) and the workings of minds and hearts.

Add to that the fact that self employment is a personal growth carnival. Every time you turn around there's an attachment to release, a stressful thought to question, a pattern to shift.

It's no surprise that like a few others of my acquaintance, I began to think that working on myself WAS working on my business. When I faced a business challenge, I was more likely to ask what I needed to fix in me than what my business needed from me.

It felt really mature and spiritual. Sometimes it probably was. And other times it was a heckuva good way to avoid taking responsibility for the bottom line.

Miss Teach-What-She-Needs-To-Learn reveals all
Lately I've been ranting about under-earning. That's a direct result of working on my profitability blind spot. The more clearly I see how asleep-at-the-wheel I've been, the more passionate I am about sharing the wake up call with other Accidental Entrepreneurs.

Yes, it's important to have good, even great, relationships with clients and customers. But do you really have clients if you're catering to a fan base that isn't interested in or able to pay you what you want to earn?

And personal growth through business is still my passion. But IS it a business if you're not managing for profitability? Are you truly employed if you're not paying yourself a good salary?

Self-supporting through our own contributions
12-Step programs have a tradition of being self-supporting through members' own contributions. They don't accept grants or gifts from non-members, period. There's an emotional maturity and practical integrity that flows from this choice, and I think it is one that Accidental Entrepreneurs would be wise to entertain.

I know that since I took on the responsibility of managing for profitability I'm far more grounded, and not just in business. I make better decisions because my ego is less involved. I'm in a better position to be generous without losing my balance or burning out.

This is not about making money at all costs. It is about growing up as the creator of the rest of your life. It's like eating food that honors and nourishes your body.

It's healthy, happy, and wise.

Ack! I'm self-employed and I don't want to under-earn any more!
If you love what you do and are blocked from earning enough by fear and confusion, you need "The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur." That's a bold statement, and I offer it most sincerely. "The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur" teaches you how to use three simple instructions to get clear, get clients, and get paid. You can learn more about it HERE.

Why are you okay with being less than? The shadow side of "good enough"

2010-06-15T01:14:07Z

There you are, poised at the top of a really, really steep ski run. You can't see the bottom of the run, let alone see a way to get there without breaking every bone in your body. You're sweating bullets and frozen in place. (Couldn't help myself.)

You're firmly in the grip of what Tim Gallwey and Robert Krieger call Fear 1 in their book, Inner Skiing. And if you are an under-earner, this fear keeps you settling for "good enough" and letting "just right" pass you by.

Oh, you might not be aware of the terror. Fear 1 dulls your senses and depletes your body's stress mechanisms. Instead of quaking in your metaphorical boots, you're more likely to feel subtle disquiet around such things as raising your fees, asking for referrals, tooting your own horn.

And it's easy enough to confuse that subtle disquiet with gut feelings that come from wisdom and experience. This week you'll learn the difference so you can shift the pattern of under-earning.

Why under-earners settle for good-enough instead of just right
After reading last week's article about under-earning, my dear friend Bob wrote:

"You were TOO gentle this week! Talk about the price we pay when we allow ourselves to be lulled into "good enough" without examining our underlying beliefs about why being "less than" is comfortable for us. I can think of all sorts of beliefs that bind me in these endeavors--fear of looking TOO prosperous; fear of judgment by others if I allow myself to prosper; fear of rejection by my peer group, if they are wallowing around as well and I'm doing OK or better than OK...!

He's right. He's naming the fears that, when chronic and unexamined, keep us playing small, not only when it comes to money, but when it comes to imagining a life that fits us just right.

The bad news is that these fears can absolutely keep you stuck indefinitely. The good news is that you don't have to get over them. Instead, you can transform your disabling Fear 1 into empowering Fear 2.

Honest.

Not all fear is created equal
Fear 1 is a great exaggerater. It magnifies danger, distorts perceptions, and creates chronic tension and anxiety. The more the risk is amplified, the less able you feel to handle it. It's a perfect storm of stuckness.

Fear 2, on the other hand "is the body's natural response to challenge...[It] focuses our attention in the present and lends us capabilities beyond our normal levels. Since this kind of fear is helpful to us, we need to learn not to resist it, nor to waste the energy it produces." (Gallwey and Krieger)

Fear 1 is disabling. Fear 2 is empowering. And if you are an under-earner, Fear 1 is what keeps you that way.

It's okay to be afraid of what people think
As Byron Katie might say, "How do I know it's okay to be afraid of what people think? Because I am."

Fear of other people's responses to your prosperity happens. The question is not how to prevent or get rid of it, but how to transform it.

And you do that by looking it in the face.

So, what are you afraid of, really?

My friend Bob spelled out three common fears that keep people locked into Fear 1 and under-earning:

Fear of looking TOO prosperous.

Fear of being judged for allowing yourself to prosper.

Fear of being rejected by peers who may not be doing as well as you are.

What exactly is so terrifying about these fears?

I propose that at the root of all of them is an atavistic fear of stepping too far out of the safety of the clan.

In the way olden days, stepping out could mean death. Wander too far drom the protection and suport of others, and you can be overtaken by predators, starvation, and exposure. In that situation, Fear 1 was a sane, survival-based response, and the most ancient part of the brain evolved to alert you to that kind of danger.

Fast forward: stepping out is not fatal
Here in the 21st century, stepping out still has elements of risk. Some people really might envy your prosperity. Others could judge you for allowing (or--heaven forfend-working for) prosperity.

And there is the possibility of being rejected by peers who aren't doing as well.

But none of these risks is fatal. Not one of them is even a sure thing. And every one of them can be approached from Fear 2 in a way that honors your longing for community as well as your peaceful ambition to prosper.

What gets measured can't kill you
The first step in transforming Fear 1 into Fear 2 is to make a measured assessment of reality. How serious is the threat, really? What concrete and specific evidence do you have that the threat exists at that level? What counter-evidence can you find (be honest!) that suggests the risk is smaller than you think?

The very act of making a measured assessment calms your nervous system, in itself a good thing. As you give shape and perspective to your fears, they become right-sized. What you fear stops being a threat and becomes a challenge.

And challenge is a good thing.

You're less vulnerable than you think
Fear 1 not only exaggerates the threat, it shrinks your confidence in being able to meet the challenge. Step 2 in transforming Fear 1 into Fear 2 is accurately assessing your vulnerability?

What's the worst that could happen if someone envies, judges, or rejects you? Give this some thought and write down the most awful answer you can imagine. Ask again, what's the worst thing that could happen then? And again. Keep going until you have an accurate assessment of your vulnerability. (Trust me; you'll know when you get there.)

You're safe in the here and now
Bringing yourself firmly into the present is the third step in transforming Fear 1 into Fear 2. Memories of past hurts can feed Fear 1. This is especially true with memories of times when you were much younger. Fear 1 doesn't notice that you're feeling the emotions of a powerless child. When you relive them as an adult, they can seem cataclysmic.

One way to come into the present is to think of past experiences that make you fear prosperity. Remind yourself that that was then, and this is now. Notice that however upset you were, you survived.

There's no excuse for under-earning
Yikes! I didn't expect to write that. How heavy-handed. And I think my friend Bob was right. I was too easy on you last week. If you're hobbled by these sorts of fears, you now know that they aren't life threatening. You know that they are exaggerated and that, with some awareness of your part, they can be transformed into creative challenges.

You may have reasons why you are not yet free of under-earning. It is, after all, a process. But you have no excuse for sitting in your stuff now that you know you have a choice.

Your pushy pal,

Ack! I'm self-employed and I don't want to under-earn any more!
If you love what you do and are blocked from earning enough by fear and confusion, you need "The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur." That's a bold statement, and I offer it most sincerely. "The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur" teaches you how to use three simple instructions to get clear, get clients, and get paid. You can learn more about it HERE.

Image Credit: Sean D'Souza, www.psychotactics.com

Profit is not a dirty word: It's time to earn what you deserve

2010-06-04T21:37:24Z

I want to light a fire under you, and in the process I may irritate some of you off. My hope is that even if you're put off by this article, it will shake up your thinking about underearning and stimulate the willingness to make a profit.

Here's why.

I'm tired of seeing talented, committed Accidental Entrepreneurs earn less than than they deserve.

I'm frustrated by Accidental Entrepreneurs who say they want to earn more, but who act in a way that guarantees underearning. I've done it myself more than I like to admit, and it's not pretty.)

After all, you actually do earn what you deserve, because what you earn is a function of the beliefs you hold and the choices you make.

Deserving is not about entitlement
To deserve something doesn't mean you are entitled to it. According to the dictionary, deserving is a function of what you *do*. The word derives from the old French "deservir," meaning to serve well or zealously.

So the question is, what are you serving zealously in your efforts to earn a living?

Another way of putting it: Are you living up to your *responsibility* for prospering?

How zealous service can keep you underearning
Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to zealously serve the purpose of underearning even as you say you want to earn more. Here's how that might look.

Spending time on work that doesn't produce income or that produces an amount inadequate to meet your needs.

Turning away well paying work that you are qualified for because you may need to stretch to do it.

Not working during your work day, if you are self-employed. (Sure, design a flexible schedule. But make sure the total time you work adds up to what a reasonable employer would expect.)

Relying on debt to cover the difference between what you want and what you can afford.

Quitting a job without an adequate source of replacement income.

Colluding in any situation that keeps you from earning the right amount for you.

Believing that someone else has to suffer in order for you to thrive.

When you do these things (even just a few of them) you zealously serve the purpose of underearning.

Ouch!

Earn the right amount for your life
According to Jerrold Mundis, author of Earn What You Deserve, How to Stop Underearning and Start Thriving, "Freedom from underearning means regularly to gain income that is enough to meet your needs in a humane way."

"Humane" means adequate to your needs, which include self care, entertainment, vacations, wellness and healthcare, philanthropy, and savings. It means earning enough to make life enjoyable.

Now that amount will vary from person to person. Precise accounting for your expenses plus the cost of things you are deprived of as a result of underearning will show you the amount that is right for you. Of course, to come up with this amount you'll have to be honest about what you want, neither inflating it nor shrinking it to meet someone else's idea of enough.

Underearning is the result of beliefs and behaviors
You may already be clear that earning plenty of money is the result of certain beliefs and behaviors. You may even congratulate yourself on not sharing those beliefs and behaviors.

What underearners are not clear about is that underearning is also the result of beliefs and behaviors. And you are responsible for both.

This is so important. If you are an underearner, you are actually committed to underearning. And that is good news, because you are completely in charge of your commitments.

In fact, when you understand that you are the agent of underearning, you experience your own power. Look what you have manifested as a result of your beliefs and behaviors. Imagine what you can manifest when you change them.

It becomes clear that you are not at the mercy of the economy, of the culture, or of values you cannot embrace.

Change your behavior and your beliefs will follow
If you resonate with this, you feel a bit overwhelmed at the idea of changing your beliefs and behaviors. After all, you have a lifetime pattern of underearning, and it is no small thing to turn that around. Here's a tip to make the change more manageable.

Start by changing your behavior. Your past behavior has reinforced your beliefs, and the fastest way to challenge and change those beliefs is to build a foundation of new behavior. As your behavior changes your relationship to underearning, your beliefs will naturally follow.

How's that fire coming along?
Learning about the pattern of underearning shook me up in a big way, and I hope this article has done the same for you. I'm so grateful to have been awakened to my responsibility to earn enough to live an enjoyable life that I have to share it.

Because it is a responsibility, you know. We weren't put here to muddle through and make do. We are each responsible for tending to the creative fire that animates our work and funds our well being.

That means stepping up when it comes to earning what you deserve.

Photo by cobalt123 via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

When an Online Business Says Yes to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

2010-06-04T21:28:28Z

I admit it, I love Zappos. A huge selection, great prices, and free shipping (on returns, too) make an irresistible combination. But irresistible as these are, they're not why I love this company.

Zappos transformed the world on online business, infusing it with personality and a level of customer care that blew the top off anything that had been done before. But this, too, isn't why I love the company.

I love Zappos because of its contagious culture.

Tony Hsieh (pronounced shay), the CEO of Zappos, captures the company's culture in his book, Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. People in large companies should read it to shake up the hidebound policies and procedures that keep employees from rocking out and customers from experiencing down to their toenails satisfaction.

But if you read this blog, you probably aren't in a large organization. Most likely you are (or want to be) self-employed.

So the question of the hour is, what does this book have for you?

In a word, heaps.

Here are a few highlights.

Character is not enough

"For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny."

When you're self-employed, it's easy to conflate character and culture. You may relate to your clients and customers as if your character should be enough to attract them. And it's just not.

Culture is bigger than one person, and a successful one-person business has a culture bigger than the owner. Culture invites participation in and connection among clients, vendors, colleagues, and other stakeholders.

If your culture is constrained by fear, self-doubt, and creative self-absorption, prospective clients will be left out in the cold. Even if they love your work, there's no space or path for them to become raving fans.

The difference between fear and foresight

Even a thriving company like Zappos took a hit in 2008. After much agonizing, the company decided to lay off employees. For a culture that valued employees as highly as Zappos', this was a radical decision.

What leapt out at me about the decision is that it was made from a place of strength and confidence. The company's leadership had the foresight to know that costs needed to be cut. And the cuts were made before drastic measures were required so that laid off employees received about two months' severance pay (more for employees who had been with the company for more than three years).

Zappos also offered to reimburse laid off employees for up to six months of COBRA payments (continuing insurance coverage). Because Zappos made the hard decision out of foresight rather than fear, it was able to continue its tradition of extraordinary respect and care for employees.

The lesson for those of us who are self-employed is to keep our eyes open. To look at the economic realities of our businesses rather than closing our eyes and holding on for dear life. And when we make difficult decisions, to make them early rather than late.

Delivering happiness
Tony Hsieh is obsessed with purpose. He observed what people said about their goals in life. And ultimately he found that, if you keep asking why a certain thing is important, everyone lands at "it will make me (and others) happy."

Happiness, however one defines it, is the end of the journey. (In fact, it's so important that the pursuit of happiness is part of the USA;s Declaration of Independence.)

In 2007, Hsieh began to study happiness in earnest. He learned about positive psychology and Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. And based on what he learned, he identified three kinds of happiness.

Three kinds of happiness
Pleasure. Pleasure is about highs. It's transitory, depending on an immediate stimulus. Once the stimulus is removed the pleasure is gone. Nothing wrong with this, provided it doesn't lead to addiction.

Passion. Also known as flow, this level of happiness comes being in the zone where you do your best work and time flies.

Purpose. The highest level of happiness is being part of a higher purpose. Of all the levels, this is the most sustained.

When your work is built on purpose, you can layer on passion and pleasure. They won't take you off track because the enduring happiness nature of purpose keeps the shorter term forms of happiness from leading you into compulsive patterns.

Its a formula that works for the individual as well as the corporation. And when you use that formula, your work, too, can deliver happiness.

Delivering Happiness is a quick read that can shift your thinking about business and open your eyes to the relationship among profits, passion, and purpose. A thriving business (and one that serves its clients well) requires all three.

Disclosure. I received a complementary advance copy of this book. The link is an affiliate link. Huzzah!

Good enough for prime time: How to clear the last hurdle to releasing your info product

2010-05-31T20:23:19Z

"I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung." Rabindranath Tagore, poet

The last hurdle to creating your info product is finishing it. Declaring it complete. Done. Ready for prime time.

Yikes! Releasing your creation into the world can be scary. What will people think? Is it good enough? Who are you to claim expertise or insight?

This article looks at this last hurdle and shows you how to clear it gracefully.

The problem of originality
One of the blocks to completing a product is worrying that it is not original enough. Now that you have written and/or recorded your product, it suddenly seems hackneyed. No different than scores of other products on the market.

But it is different. It's as original as your fingerprints.

What makes your info product original
There are four things that make your info product original, unique in all the world:

Your tribe

Your point of view

Your way of communicating

Your personality

Your tribe is the people who resonate with you and your message. It doesn't matter how many other similar messages are out in the world because yours speaks to their needs at this moment. Your product only needs to be relevant to this tribe to be ready for prime time.

Your point of view on a topic determines what elements you emphasize and why. Your way of thinking not only about the nuts and bolts but also about how they relate to each other and to the needs of your tribe is distinct from anyone else's. That adds up to originality.

The way you communicate comprises your choice of words, the way you organize your thoughts, and your choice of media. Even when what you say is the same as what someone else says, the way you say it makes it unique.

Finally, your personality is what brings your product to life. It's the animating spirit or voice that lets people know you are a human being. It's the key to making a strong connection with your tribe. Like your signature, it distinguishes your work from everyone else's.

The important thing to remember is that you already have all four of these things to make your info product original. While you can make choices to polish each of them, you already have a tribe, a point of view, a way of communicating, and (doncha know?) a personality.

In other words, you don't have to force originality. You've got it.

What makes your product good enough?
No matter how hard you have worked on your product, it is natural at the end of the process to worry about whether it is good enough to release. Will the quality of your work stand up in the marketplace?

The thing to understand here is that "good enough" is always a moving target. The more you work on something, the more you see that you could improve. At some point you need to declare enough or you'll never stop.

So what constitute's good enough? I like the 70% rule. Release your product when it's 70% perfect and fix the next 20% in a future revision. The logic behind this is that you'll be better able to address the 20% after the product has been out for a while, and you've gotten feedback. The remaining 10% represents that part of perfection that is always changing. You'll never get there no matter how hard you work, so let go.

You're at the finish line
Closely related to knowing your product is good enough is knowing when to declare it finished. Where good enough has to do with the quality of the product contents, finishing has to do with the quality of the packaging.

Who wouldn't want to release a product that is as beautiful as it is useful? Especially if you and your audience are particularly creative. Besides, a beautiful presentation gives your info product authority.

But if this is your first info product, you may not have the deep pockets to hire a designer for the cover, layout, and graphics. It's not good for your business to spend too much in these areas until you can be certain that you'll earn more than enough to justify the investment.

Fortunately, you don't need fancy design to release a product that is credible and valuable. What is important is that your product be neat and easy to understand.

Odds are that you've bought a few info products yourself (if you haven't you really should, if only to get a feel for the medium). Look at how they are designed and put together. Choose a product that looks nice without being too flashy. Notice how the margins are set, what font is used, how paragraphs are spaced. Imitate these elements as best you can keeping it as simple as you can. As with the quality of content, shoot for 70% and you'll be fine.

It's about singing your song
Your info product is the song you're here to share with the world. Don't let preoccupation with how your instrument is strung keep you from making music. The more you play, the better you'll get.

A change in plan
For the past few weeks I've been gently teasing you with hints about the opening of Shaboom County to new members. To celebrate this, I'd planned a week-long event with free audios every day. And you know what? My vision exceeded my grasp. There's no way I can do a really good job of welcoming new members to Shaboom County while I'm busy finishing The Goldilocks Strategy Home Study.

So I've decided not to open Shaboom County to new members at this time. Depending on how plans for the Self Employment Telesummit (coming in September) go, I may open Shaboom County for membership in July. Whatever the timing, you'll hear about it here.

Thanks for your understanding.

Photo credit: kruemi via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

Getting it right: How to integrate perfectionism and self-criticism into a successful business

2010-05-28T17:11:54Z

This morning after my meditation, I was visited by the image of my inner old maid. What a dried up prune! At first I couldn't see anything to value, let alone love. I hesitated to approach her because I had nothing nice to say.

And then it occurred to me that I could start with what was true for me.

So I said,"Sure, you're a great proofreader. You can spot an error in grammar a mile away. But you're so mean! You nail me whenever I get too exuberant for your taste. (You say I'm too full of myself.) You're quick to remind me that after pride comes a fall. And the fact is you're just plain nasty to be around."

Then out of the ether, this question arose: "What would bring you to life? What would make you juicy and kind? The kind of old woman I would seek out in a heartbeat whenever I needed counsel?"

Immediately I saw a vibrant old woman tending an English garden. (I've never seen such a garden, yet I know exactly what one looks like. Overflowing with roses, delphiniums, hydrangea, and peonies. Lush. Fragrant. A haven and an inspiration.)

Picturing my old maid like this, I found it easy, even comforting, to listen to her. And when she got preachy, I teased her gently. Sometimes I ignored her advice, but that didn't keep us from loving each other. I felt toward her (and from her) enduring respect and affection. And boundless gratitude.

I left my inner old maid tending her roses in the soft English sunshine. The next time I feel assaulted by self-criticism, I'll seek her wise counsel.

Besides, she serves the most delicious tea.

Photo by: Allie's.Dad via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

Don't stop now! What to do when you get stuck in the info product muck

2010-05-24T17:45:37Z

So you've gotten over your allergy to the very idea of an info-product. You've worked through the issues that used to keep you from starting one.

And now you've actually made a beginning. But guess what? You're starting to go round in circles. Or maybe you've just plain stopped. (Or not. If this isn't you, you get a free pass and don't need to read this article. Why not pass it on to a friend who is struggling?)

What's really happening when you get stuck

This may not make you feel a whole lot better, but it's quite natural to get stuck in the middle of creating an info product. What you are experiencing is a natural (and temporary) stage of the creative process, not an ongoing manifestation of deep-seated flaws in your personality.

So here's what's really going on.

The gap revisited
Creating an info product is all about closing the gap between what you want to make and where you are right now. The thing is, both sides of the gap shift as soon as you take action. Your starting point moves with every step, and your end point gets more or less clear in a maddening kind of Alice in Wonderland way.

Is it any wonder you lose your bearings? (If only there were a mushroom you could nibble on to bring everything into perfect focus!)

As you adapt to the shifting nature of the gap, you may run into one or more of these problems:

creative overdrive.

enoughness blindness.

garden variety fear and doubt.

Creative overdrive: too much of a good thing is too much
The gap can be incredibly stimulating. Your creative self starts to rock and roll with the constantly changing landscape. The bright shiny object syndrome you worked out in the beginning comes back. "Wouldn't it be cool...?" and "What if...?" multiply until your brain is on fire with new possibilities.

It's fun until you realize that you're not making any progress. You're lost in a sea of infinite possibility.

Enoughness blindness: when there's no such thing as enough of a good thing
A companion to creative overdrive is blindness to what constitutes enough. Enough angles on your topic. Enough answers for all the possible questions a reader could have. Enough explanation. Enough encouragement. Enough detail. Enough options. Enough beauty, truth, and goodness.

This is partly about attachment to the ideas generated by creative overdrive and partly fear of, well, fear of not being and delivering enough.

Enough said.

Garden variety fear and doubt: another blinkin' opportunity for personal growth
There's nothing like over-stimulation and attachment for bringing up your issues. Somehow the more creative you are, the louder the inner critics get. This makes it really, really hard to lift your boots out of the muck and move on.

Having seen how easy it is to get stuck, let's look at what you can do about it.

9 tips for getting out of the info product muck

Reframe what's going on as a natural part of the creative process. This is also known as getting a grip. Nowhere is is written that this process is supposed to be smooth.

Manage creative overdrive by returning to your original plan. What did you intend to create? What message did you plan to deliver? If your topic still doesn't come into focus, it's probably too big. Choose one aspect and revise your product to cover only that.

Manage enoughness blindness by returning to your outline. (You do have one, right?) Break down your product or program into three main topics. Break each topic down into 5-7 take-aways. Break each take-away down into 3-5 bullet points. Your outline defines enoughness.

Bring your body into it. Notice where you may be experiencing fear or anxiety. Allow space for tension between where you are and where you are going. This will actually pull you forward.

Move. Get up and go for a walk. Put on some music and dance. Movement helps break up stuck patterns and gets more oxygen to your overheated brain.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, ask yourself, "What part of this, specifically, is overwhelming?" When you see the specific sticking point, you will usually see a way around it.

When you feel confused or disoriented, run a mental movie of the experience you want to deliver with your finished work. Connect vividly to the end result and you'll gather confidence and momentum.

Don't confuse feeling competent with being competent. You can feel confused, inadequate, and just not in the mood for creating and still do good work. Acknowledge your feelings, then take one single step forward. Repeat.

Don't edit as you write. Creating and editing are different functions. They use different parts of the brain and call on different skill sets. As Anne Lamott recommends, do a shitty first draft and then revise.

You can do this
It's perfectly natural, even appropriate, to get stuck in the middle of creating an info product. Don't be misled by feeling you can't do this. Take a break, then assess where you are stuck. Apply as many of the 9 tips as needed. You WILL break through.

Get help in community
You can get support for creating an info product and other self employment challenges in Shaboom County, an online community for Accidental Entrepreneurs. It will be open to new members in June, so stay tuned.

Photo credit: disownedlight via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

Be a shark whisper: How to take care of your need for money and profit

2010-05-21T18:26:30Z

This morning, after my meditation and during my customary focusing session, I encountered my inner shark.

She came to me as a gripping in my upper jaw, which evolved into an image of tightly clenched shark's teeth. I said hello, and invited her to show me how she wanted me to be with her.

Instantly I saw that she wanted to be accepted, integrated, even loved. And I immediately encountered the sharpest resistance. The shark, from my perspective, was greedy, grasping, devouring. She showed up in my business as a crass, even vicious, pursuer of income. I felt I had no choice but to cage her.

Still, I stayed with her, and the floodgates opened. Image after image flooded my awareness as I saw how I muzzled, rejected, caged, criticized, shamed, resented, and denied my inner shark. The sense of hurt was palpable. Though I could not imagine integrating this ugly creature, it was clear to me that denying her was utterly wrong.

So I asked how she wanted me to be with her. The image came of the Whalerider, and I saw myself lying on the shark's back, gentling her. As we swam, I saw myself feeding her on legitimately earned profits instead of abandoning her to forage among hapless victims of my fear and grasping.

I saw that the shark could be tamed, providing I agreed to be tamed in return.

Taming the shark means being responsible for earning a good living. It means honoring her needs instead of denying them. It means acknowledging my shark nature and gentling it instead of whipping it into submission.

I guess you could say I've been called to be a shark whisperer.

And you? What does your inner shark need today?

Photo by richard ling via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

The 4 sticking points that keep you from starting your profitable info product

2010-05-17T16:30:21Z

It's the first really warm day of Spring here in the Pacific Northwest, and I can hear the hum of lawnmowers and happy chatter of gardeners outside my window. Which got me to thinking...

How do people know which project is the right one? Should they weed the flower beds? Mow the lawn? Plant vegies?

And assuming they can decide, which corner of the yard should they start with?

And then, how can they be sure they have what it takes to do a good job?

Are you thinking yard work needn't be quite so fraught? Maybe not. But these are the same sticking points that keep Accidental Entrepreneurs from completing an info product once they've decided to do one.

The crucial difference between getting stuck and pausing
The first thing you need to know is that getting stuck is just a prolonged pause. And there are good reasons to pause in the creative process.

Sometimes you need to pause because there is a question that must be answered before you move on. Sometimes you need to pause to gather resources. And sometimes you need to pause to check the map of where you're going.

The difference between a creative pause and stuckness is awareness. When you know why you are pausing, you can do something about it. When you don't know, you go around in circles and call it being stuck.

The three places you get stuck
With that in mind, there are three sticking points along the road to a complete info product: at the very beginning, in the middle, and at the end. (Isn't that encouraging?!) In this article you'll learn why you get stuck at the beginning and what to do about it. In the next two articles you'll learn about getting unstuck at the middle and the end.

So let's dive in!

Why you get stuck at the very beginning
It is perfectly natural to get stuck at the very start of creating an info product, especially if you haven't done one before. For one thing there are so many possibilities! For another, there's the niggling fear that you don't have enough to offer. (Ugh. Ouch.)

The sticking points at the beginning boil down to:

Not knowing which product is the right one.

Not knowing where to start.

Lack of confidence/self doubt.

Not knowing which product is the right one
For every info product that reaches the market, I wager there are thousands that never get started because the creator couldn't decide what to make. That's a problem. :)

So, how can you tell which one of your product ideas is the right one?

You can't. That is, there is no way you can be absolutely positively sure that the product you develop is the very best one you could do and will sell like hotcakes.

What you can know is what would be helpful to the people you serve. And you can know that because they will tell you.

Pay attention to your just-right clients--the ones you are already working with and the ones you'd like to work with in the future. Make a list of the questions they ask you. Group them together by topic. Choose a topic. (Eenie meenie minie moe works here.)

Voila! You have made the big scary decision.

Not knowing where to start
Now what?

At this point your brain is likely to be flooded with everything you ever knew about your topic. Except when your mind goes utterly blank.

And both conditions make it kind of hard to get started.

Here's what you do. When your mind is racing, do a brain dump. Start a list or a mindmap and just pour out whatever occurs to you. If you think better out loud, speak your ideas into a recorder, then transcribe them. (You're going to make money on this puppy. It's worth the time.)

When your mind goes blank, set this aside for a bit. You'll be brimming with possibilities again before long.

Give this process at most an hour. Then make friends with outlining.

Outlining won't kill you
Creative Accidental Entrepreneurs seem allergic to outlining. If you're not, hurrah! If you are, take heart. The outline I recommend is dead simple.

Write your topic at the top of a page.

Write a one sentence summary of what you intend this product to do and for whom. For example: "This ebook will show self-employed professionals how to stop the cycle of under-earning."

Go to your brain dump and group similar/related ideas together. Choose 8-12 main ideas that you could include in your product.

Choose 5 of those ideas. Let go of the rest. If your topic is too big to be addressed in 5 ideas, break it up into smaller topics and choose one. (It just makes sense to start with a tiny info product so you can learn the process.)

For each of your 5 ideas, write down 5 points people need to know. Be sure your 5 points answer these questions: Why is this important? What should they know? How do they act on what your are teaching them? What can they expect when they've taken action?

Now you have a map showing you where to start and what needs to be done to complete your product.

Lack of confidence/self doubt
You've chosen a product. You've outlined it. And now you are paralyzed by lack of confidence and self doubt. It's perfectly natural and it sucks eggs.

So let's look at what you can do about it.

Build a support group. This is far and away the most useful thing you can do. Gather with like-minded people for the express purpose of supporting each other to complete a project. Create structures of accountability (regular progress reports, check-in phone calls, meetings) so you stay connected. Your group can't support you if they don't know what's going on.

Orient yourself toward service. Your just-right clients need this product. You know that because you chose it based on their questions. It's about them even more than it's about you. Remember this and invite your wounded ego to cuddle up with a teddy bear and take a nap. Somewhere else.

Why not make a start?
If you've always wanted to do an info product, why not start one this week? Give yourself two hours to walk through the steps in this article. It might not even take you that long. Just do the things and don't worry about whether you are doing them right.

What do you have to lose?

The tease continues...
This whole topic came to mind because I've been working on the Shaboom County Library, which happens to include an ebook on writing a tiny info product. It's pretty cool, and it is available only to Shaboom County members.

Here's the tease. You can't join Shaboom County, at least not right now. But membership will be opened for one week in early June. There will be a slew of cool no-cost downloads to celebrate. Details will, of course, follow.

Photo by: roadsidepictures
Under a Creative Commons License

The 3 hurdles info product gurus never talk about that keep you from creating passive income

2010-05-10T20:19:11Z

Have you ever wanted to create an information product--an ebook or audio, for example--and gotten stuck in the process? There's a reason for this, and it's not that there's something wrong with you. When you understand the reason, you can jump the three hurdles that keep you from the holy grail of passive income.

Info product gurus make producing passive income sound easy. All you have to do is bang out a few pages of content or record a quickie teleclass, wrap it in a glossy package, and write some killer sales copy. Then you can relax while the money pours in.

But when you care at least as much about doing good work as you do about money, you instantly run into three hurdles.

1. The sleaze factor
2. The slickness factor
3. The hump factor

The sleaze factor
-----------------------------
The first hurdle to creating an info product is that so many of them appear (I dare say are) sleazy. They're not created to guide clients toward a desired goal but to lead them into buying another product or service. In other words, they are thinly disguised advertisements.

Even though you are clear that this is not what you're up to, the sleaze factor contaminates the whole process, eating away at your vision and enthusiasm. It's hard to even start an info product when the whole idea makes your stomach turn.

It can seem as if info products are for the sleazy-minded, and since you're not, you figure they're not for you.

Fortunately, this is a hurdle you can jump. But before we go into that, let's talk about the other two hurdles.

The slickness factor
Info products that sell well are packaged well. Sometimes it seems they are packaged too well. More time and attention is invested in slick packaging than in valuable content.

The emphasis on slick packaging can keep you from promoting your product effectively because you don't want your buyers to feel let down when they come to use the product. You need a good package to sell it, but what if your product doesn't stand up to its image?

Because of the slickness factor, you can doubt the value of your product. And that can be enough to close off the income stream.

The hump factor
The third hurdle to creating passive income with an info product is the hump factor.

The good news and not-so-good news is that creating a product is a creative process. It's got ups and downs, humps and bumps. And if you believe it's supposed to be easy, you'll think there's something wrong with your idea. The product is stopped before it starts.

3 keys to jumping the hurdles and creating passive income
None of these hurdles is so high that you can't jump it. In fact, when you can see them clearly, you may find that getting over or around them is pretty easy.

And to make sure of that, here are three keys to jumping the hurdles so you can create info products that delight your clients and bring in income.

The first key: Know where you're going
A hurdle is only an obstacle if it's actually blocking your path. When you are clear about what you are going to create and how it serves both your clients and your biz, the first hurdle tends to dissolve.

The sleaze factor dissolves because it doesn't apply to you. The very fact that it turns you off proves this.

To be clear about how your product is not sleazy, you need:

1. A simple statement of what your product will do for your clients.

2. A simple summary of what the product will do for your biz.

For example, a graphic artist might write down the following for an info product about about do-it-yourself business card design.

Will do for my clients: Give people who aren't ready or able to invest in professional design a template so their own designs are more effective.

Will do for my biz: Give new clients a way to make a small investment to get to know me. Show clients the limits of do-it-yourself design without pressuring them to hire me. Bring in passive income as it attracts new clients.

With these two things in mind, the graphic artist can jump the sleaze hurdle gracefully.

The second key: Understand how packaging helps clients
No doubt about it, packaging is super important for selling your info product. But that's not it's only function. Done correctly, packaging makes your product more useful and increases the likelihood that your clients will actually use it.

Packaging makes products more useful. A well-designed product is easier to use. Good packaging (which includes how the product is organized as well as how the outer package looks) makes the most important points stand out from the rest. It makes it easier to find specific bits of information. And it draws the user in so s/he engages more with the content.

Packaging makes it more likely your clients will use your info product. Who wants to sell an info product that ends up on a shelf or languishes on your client's hard drive? That's what usually happens with ordinary-looking info products. A stand-out cover and attractive insides make your product more memorable and thus more likely to get used.

When you understand how packaging helps the buyer, it won't seem to be a slick gimmick. You're over that hurdle.

The third key: Have a structure for the creative process
When you're very familiar with a particular art or craft, you may not need to spell out the steps in the creative process. But when you're creating something unfamiliar, knowing the steps of the process will help you get over the hump and stay on track.

When it comes to info products, one of the most misunderstood parts of the creative process is gestation.

Gestation is the phase where an idea goes underground. During gestation, your idea is less clear, even invisible. If you aren't paying attention, you'll overlook the idea when it sprouts. You'll mistake it for one more random possibility that won't turn into anything concrete.

To get over the gestation hump, record your idea so you can keep track of its growth. It's like checking to see if a seed has sprouted so you can either tend it or start over.

You can do this
You can create info products that serve your clients and bring you passive income. With a little practice and support of others on a similar path, you'll end up with a product you can be proud of--and one that your just-right clients will gladly buy and use.

Why this is up for me right now...
One of the things we've focused on in Shaboom County is creating info products. We did a teleclass on it and I even wrote an ebook about it for the Shaboom County Library.

Right now Shaboom County is closed to new members. But in a few weeks this online community will be open to new members for just one week. Before membership reopens, you'll have a chance to download 5 different goodies from the Shaboom County Library so you can get a taste of what's there for you.

In other words, stay tuned. ;-)

Photo by: n.kuzma via flickr
Under a Creative Commons License

What does time management have to do with luck?

2010-04-30T23:58:01Z

There's more to scheduling your time than setting priorities and filling in blocks in your calendar. In fact, the time you leave blank may be the most important time of all.

Unscheduled time is like white space in in a pleasing design. It gives order, context, and emphasis to the things that matter. It's also the key to noticing and responding to those nudges and tugs from the universe that Carl Jung dubbed synchronicities.

A synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence, the co-occurence in time of inner and outer events that show us what we need to know or learn in order to thrive.

You could say the ability to notice and respond to synchronicity is the key to good luck.

The thing is, a synchronicity isn't manifest until you notice and respond to it. Without this, it's just random events in a chaotic world. And the key to noticing and responding to synchronicity is white space.

Little bits of white space create spaciousness
Designers talk about two kinds of white space: micro and macro. Micro white space is the space between small elements in a design. In your calendar it's the bit of wiggle room you allow when you plan your time. It's allowing ten minutes between clients or giving yourself a bit more time than you think you need for a project.

In design, micro white space makes things easier to read and grok. It communicates calm and encourages trust and connection. In business, micro white space creates spaciousness. It softens your heart and helps you notice important details.

Without micro white space, you contract and feel pressured. With it, you expand and feel more alert and engaged. Because of this you can sense and respond to the subtle promptings of synchronous events.

Chunks of white space create order
Macro white space is the space between large elements in a design. It lets you know what to pay attention to first and how different elements relate to each other.

In your business, macro white space has two expressions. One is time you schedule for things that renew you, like meditation or taking a walk. The other is unscheduled time. Time for all the unexpected things that crop up in a day that would otherwise make you tear your hair. Time to defrag.

Without macro white space, everything has the same degree of urgency and importance. It's like living in a constant state of emergency. When everything is a crisis, interruptions are unwelcome. And synchronicities do like to interrupt things.

How to find white space
The buddhist-informed therapist, David Richo, writes that, because all things are ultimately one, the Universe is always conspiring in your favor. Whether or not you collaborate in that conspiracy is often a function of white space. Here are some tips for including more white space in your calendar.

Just say no to multi-tasking. There's increasing evidence that multi-tasking is inefficient and inelegant. You can't actually do more than one thing at a time, and when you switch back and forth, however rapidly, you lose focus, connection, and momentum.
Another cost of multi-tasking is that it fills in those micro-white spaces where synchronicity happens.

Choosing to do one thing at a time takes practice. Start by setting modest goals. Thirty minutes of writing without checking email or Twitter. One hour without answering the phone. As you get the hang of spacious concentration, it will get easier and easier.

Build in chaos time. During last year's Self Employment Telesummit, Sean D'Souza suggested you set aside two hours every day for the unexpected. On top of that, set aside one week a month to catch up on and complete all the things that got interrupted or delayed during the previous weeks.

At first, scheduling for chaos is scary. How can you afford to set aside so much time? But in reality, chaos happens whether you plan for it or not. When you do build in chaos time, you will have the satisfaction of meeting deadlines and the bandwidth for unexpected opportunities.

It's a friendly Universe
It's alleged that Einstein said the biggest question in life is whether or not we live in a friendly Universe. I say the answer is determined by our choices. Make room for synchronous nudges and pokes and the world becomes a much kinder place.

The Bedside Table
The Power of Coincidence, How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know, David Richo.
Figured I'd share this info as I reference David Richo in today's article. As I said last week, his take on synchronicity came as a breath of fresh air. I'd gotten cynical about synchronicity, which often looked like wishful or magical thinking. But Richo's take has restored the grace that comes when we see all that happens as part of Life's Great Workshop.

Photo credit: nasa1fan/MSFC via Flickr
Under a Creative Commons License