What I keep coming back to is Personality.  People buy when they trust.  Trust the brand, the face of the brand, the concept of the brand, the look of the brand.  All of those things are personality traits that create a memorable experience for people.  And when a consumer remembers you or your product/service, they most likely will buy. 

It becomes important then to focus on developing your brand, and for those who are service-based professionals, the focus should be on your Personal brand, rather than the brand of your company.  So how do you develop a memorable Personal Brand?  Here are my five top secret steps:

1) Get Curious - Ask yourself this: What is the one thing I want people to remember from meeting me? 

2) Exagerrate - Take what you found out in Step #1 and over-emphasis those in ALL your encounters - whether they are potential clients or not. 

3)  Get Real - Authenticity sells!  So check in with yourself and find out how authentically you are showing up in your business.  What values are you honoring or dishonoring by your tactics.  If there are values being stepped on, chances are you aren't staying true to yourself.  Tweak those as necessary to get back to who you really are.

4)  Bliss Out - When you're following your bliss in all areas of your life, this will add to your bravado - people will notice, and want whatever it is you have!  Take the time to inventory your life and add in bliss where it's missing!

5)  Have Fun - If you aren't having fun, then chances are you aren't on the right track.  Crank up the fun in your personal image, your workday, your interactions and begin to see how easy it becomes to attract the right business to you!

Glad you asked.  See, everything begins with a dream.  This might sound cliche, but without a dream, a vision, a goal, people would just sit around and not do very much.  Dreams are what give us the reason to aspire to something - to want to achieve something.  Dreams are ideas in motion.  It's how we create, how we invent, how we manifest.

Do you remember daydreaming as a little girl or boy?  What would you daydream about?  How did it feel? What did daydreaming give you? 

Children have a much easier time with dreaming than adults. We lose the ability to dream as we grow older as, we become busy with life, our jobs, our friends etc. We get set in the ritual of our lives and often settle into the security and comfort it provides.  The need for dreaming goes away along with that security blanket.  And so we become much more rational, reasoning and logical adults.  Dreams are for children aren't they?

The danger that comes along with perspective is that we lose the vehicle for wanting more, for creating from the depths of our souls, and aiming for something higher.  Suddenly the possibilities become less feasible, and we just settle for easy.  

Deep down inside we know there is something more we want.  We just don't allow ourselves to dream of it - we find a million reasons why it's just not possible.  We talk ourselves out of dreaming before we even start! But that nagging voice will always be there, because human beings are always in motion, in evolution, and we are meant to be creating and manifesting all the time.  We are doing a big disservice to ourselves and others when we surpress those ideas, because those ideas could have impact out in the world.

So we keep them on lock down, buried beneath feelings of fear and doubt, as if to keep them from getting too big or too lofty.  Cause then, what if you had a big dream?  What if you actually allowed yourself to really DREAM? You might want to do something about it!  And that might require you to start playing  a bigger game, where you have to come out of your comfort zone and become a leader.  

My challenge for you this week is to daydream - but to give yourself NO limits when you dream.  No dream is too big or too small.  Notice what comes up - is it difficult, or easy? What limiting beliefs pop up when you dream?  Is there a recurring dream?  Keep a journal if you want.

Start working your dreaming muscle and dare to dream big!  And worry about the details later.  

http://healing.about.com/od/higherself/a/alignhigherself.htm

Sound vaguely familiar? If so, then you are officially a member of the group which I like to call – “I’m SO in Control!” – welcome!  We should probably start a Facebook Fan page – I think it would really take off. Imagine all the control addicted people out there…..this could be huge, really huge!

Why are we so addicted to control? What is it about certainty that makes us feel powerful and safe?  And how on earth do we kid ourselves in believing there is such a thing in the first place?!

Perhaps its because as human beings we deal with immortality, the eventual fate that lies ahead of all of us.  Maybe its because we are creatures of habit, and we thrive in stable environments.  Whatever the reason may be, all of us crave it, want to feel in control, and strive to achieve it, whether it’s in our personal lives, in our relationships or the world around us.

My last few posts have been about control and creating your reality - this topic seems to be popping up in my own life lately.  I’ve been practicing setting intentions and then letting go to let the universe take charge a bit and just staying open to what shows up.  I’ve found that letting go of the “how” – not planning or controlling how I’m going to get to my goal, is where the juice is.  It’s actually the key component in the law of attraction that I’m sure many of you are aware of.  And let me tell you – it actually works!

This may sound easy enough, yet can be difficult to do because of our desire to be constantly in control.  But there is also a lot of freedom there.  Imagine what it would be like to set a goal and not worry about the details of how to get there.  Think about the pressure it takes off you and the time and energy it frees up. 

Now I’m sure many of you are thinking there is no way you’re willing to give up your addiction.  This concept might even scare you and send you running for the hills.  I know it took me a long time to get comfortable with uncertainty.  Coming from an event planning background, my whole world revolved around contingency plans. While there is definitely a time and place for a nice solid plan, I’m proposing that it’s not always necessary.  Sometimes all it takes is to have a clear vision, set the intention, and let go.  Are you up for the challenge?



What does that mean - create 2010?  And why haven't I done it already, if I think it's such a good idea? 

Well the truth is, I'm too preoccupied with all the more important things going on in my life at the moment to make time to do this.  In fact, I've come up with at least 10 good reasons in the past few days to keep me from doing something that I know will set the tone for the rest of the year.  I made a few New Year's resolutions - shouldn't that be enough?  Sigh.....

Back to my original question - what does it mean to create 2010?  Keep reading and you'll find out....

To create 2010 means to sit down, in a quiet place, and vision what you would like 2010 to look like, feel like, smell like, taste like, and sound like.  It means taking time out of your busy schedule to ask yourself, what do I really want to accomplish in 2010?  Or, how do I want to show up as a person in 2010?  Or, what would the chapter of this book be called if I could name the upcoming chapter of my life?

To create 2010 means to ask yourself, if things could be really different this year - like REALLY different - would would those things be?  How would that affect my relationships, and the world around me?

Creating 2010 doesn't mean setting up useless New Year's resolutions that you're going to forget about in a week.  It's more about thinking about the possibilities, the opportunities and envisioning what fulfillment looks like for you.  And then working backwards from there.

Because, you see, when we set out with intention, and a focused vision for how our lives will look like, we set up ourselves for success.  We have clarity, we have something to aim for, no matter how crazy or outrageous it sounds like.  Then and only then can we actually set out to acheive a dream or a goal.  Sounds pretty important now doesnt it?  Well it is!!

So how come more of us (myself included) don't make it a priority to sit down to do this at the beginning of each year?  My guess is that we don't really understand the power of manifestation, of creating your own reality.  We underestimate the gift we have as individuals to actually manifest our desires.  And so we therefore continue along with our busy, complicated lives, and forget about the importance of setting clear intention - especially at the turn of a New Year, where we all want to wipe the slate clean and begin again. 

What will you chose to do (and I ask myself this very question) - carry on with business as usual?  Or pick up your journal, make a nice cup of tea and start creating......?  The choice is yours!

On this particular day, I was having a bad day - upset at some things and feeling really frustrated.  I was happy to be sitting on the train because I knew I could at least shut out all my problems for a brief moment.  Until suddenly we were stopped at a station, without any signs of movement, and clearly there wasn't anything anyone could do.  We just sat there, the doors open, without any reason or way out.  I thought about my options - I could patiently wait until the problem was solved, I could get upset and impatient like some other passengers who clearly had to be somewhere soon and were going to be late to their appointment, or I could get up, leave and walk to my destination or take a cab.  The last option wasn't really an option though, since I was very far from where I needed to be, and taking a cab seemed unreasonable.  I resigned myself to waiting patiently - observing how others were reacting to the situation.

And then it hit me - life is like being on a moving train.  The train moves quickly, and most of the time it runs smoothly.  But when a problem arises, you are at the mercy of the train operator.  And I realized that while on the train, you're actually not in control at all.  You're just a passenger.  On for the ride.   Sort of like life - you're on for the ride, but then life will throw a curve ball at you, and you realize that you're not in control after all.

What you ARE in control of, however - and this is the part that was the lesson for me - is that you are always at CHOICE on how to react to a certain situation.  Just like I was at choice to be patient or impatient at the sudden stopping of the train.  There is something really important about that for me - being at CHOICE.  It helps me feel in control when things around me are seemingly out of control.  It gives me something to focus and work on.  Most of all, it lets me know that I have a way out - no matter how stuck I feel at that moment, I can always choose to look at it from a different perspective, approaching it from a different angle.

As I realized this, I chose to look at my own problems from a different angle.  I began to laugh out loud - first at the fact that I was stuck on the train, and second, because my problems suddenly seemed ridiculous.  I took on the perspective of - "Life is life a moving train - you feel like you're in control, but you're really not! So empower yourself with choice!" - which automatically freed me up to think about how else I could approach my current dilemma.  By the time I had reached Milano, I had a fresh perspective on all of it and suddenly my problems didn't seem that bad. 

So the next time you feel out of control or stuck - remember that you are always at CHOICE - and most of all, remember to laugh! 

And as all of this becomes my reality, I've noticed myself fading into the past - thinking about the life I've left behind, and also to the future - of the life that I want to create.  Not at all living in the present moment - aware of what's happening here, now.  It's easy to slip into this "sleep" mode - we are all guilty of doing it, where you're not really all that present.  How many times a day do you go into that place?

That is exactly what happened one day last week when I was making Turkish coffee on our old stove and the little stove top jiggled out of its place.  Since I wasn't full aware of what I was doing (making Turkish coffee on auto-pilot if you will), I reached out and grabbed the burning hot stove top to move it back into place, and then proceeded to scream in pain as my brain registered that I had touched something red hot.  Oops!

After 20 minutes of agonizing pain and cursing myself for being so stupid....I found the lesson in all of it.  I realized that I had been sleepwalking way to much lately - that I was functioning on auto-pilot way too often, and wasn't fully present in my life.  The daily stresses and challenges were taking over and I was choosing to let them take me away from the NOW.  Whoa - did I really need to burn my fingers to learn that one??!!

Sometimes it does take a painful lesson like that to wake you up - and every day I look at the scars on my fingers, I'm reminded to come back to the present moment, feel grateful for what I have, and enjoy the moment.  Such a simple thing, yet so hard to do when you get wrapped up in life's trivialities.  

With that terribly embarrassing example, I'll leave you with this tidbit so that you'll spare yourself the excruciating exercise of having to burn your fingers to learn how to stay present:  

-Notice each time you're mind starts wondering to the past or to the future

-Bring yourself back to NOW by taking 3 long, relaxing breaths

-Fix your gaze on something near you that lights you up, and be grateful for it

-Repeat