What are you grateful for?

There’s a restaurant in San Francisco called Café Gratitude.  On all of their plates, bowls and cups is this question:  what are you grateful for?  The paintings through the restaurant (and also collected in the book and board game, “The Abounding River”), depict how differences in perception create different realities.  One in particular shows a woman wearing a set of glasses.  She is surrounded by a desolate landscape, but through those glasses she sees a sea of roses.

Gratitude is a portal to a sea of roses.

 “Abundance may be experienced by being grateful for what you have already received,” reads an old Sufi saying on one of the restaurant’s walls.

As one of my spiritual teachers has shared with me, it is the nature of consciousness to seek more consciousness.  Abraham says that it is the nature of the Universe to grow and expand.  The More Life Principle is that Life is always seeking greater expression.  All this is great.  AND sometimes it means that in our desire for expansion, we forget to appreciate what we already have!

What have you received that you have not fully appreciated?  Take a breath, slow down, and notice.  What is present for you, right now, in this moment, to which you can turn the light of your attention and appreciation?  Drink it in.  Allow the cells in your body to open to this awareness.  What do you notice as you do this?  What begins to happen inside?

Your Soul loves to be incarnated, here on the earth, experiencing life with and through you.  Your Inner Being or Soul Self relishes the smell of rain, the beauty of a flower, the touch of lover’s hand, a child’s smile, the majesty of a mountain.  The divine within you walks in appreciation and gratitude in each moment.  Gratitude for you, gratitude for life, gratitude for the All That Is.

And gratitude, too, even for things that your personality self turns away from, disapproves of, would rather do without.  Like when your technology goes awry.  Or a client backs out.  Or you need to get on the phone because you need to generate income to pay your bills this month.

Because this, even this, is part of the miracle of life.  Because everything, everything, everything is for your growth and your learning.  Neither good nor bad.  Just is.  Stop fighting.  Stop struggling.  Stop judging yourself – and judging others.  Be with what is.  Then just take the next step.

Notice your habit of focusing on what is not here. On what you think should have happened but didn’t.  And how you then project that disappointment out into the future.

Expansion and contraction are part of the cycles of nature.  And when in business if you can view this as growth and integration/consolidation you will experience these cycles with more ease and grace.

Breathing in and breathing out.  The gift of the breath.  The gift of Life.
The gifts of growth, experience, and expansion.

What unfolds before you as you open the Portal of Gratitude to experience life through the perspective of your Soul?  What do you see now when you look through your eyes with your Soul’s appreciation?  The portal is always standing at the ready. And when you open and walk through, desolation turns to roses.

And your business expands as you open this Portal of Gratitude.  And even more when you extend to yourself, for yourself, for your own experience of life, for the gifts and talents that you bring, for all that you do and Be.

Only one ever of you.  In any time-space reality.  Only one precious brilliant You.

I am grateful for You.

I have a gift for you that will help you to experience abundance and gratitude immediately.  I’m giving you access to a teleseminar I did on Money Belief Relief, which includes a practice that you can use right now, and repeat as needed and desired.  Click here to access Money Belief Relief.

This is my way of saying THANK YOU for being a part of my Tribe and my Village!  I am so grateful for you, for the opportunity to connect and provide service and value to you.

Business is all about positioning.  How you put yourself into the marketplace.  Because that’s how you come into focus.  That’s how people can see who you are, and can learn what you can do for them. 

It does not have to be us vs. them, although that is a time-tested strategy in marketing.  Just take a look at how well Steve Jobs of Apple Computer worked that angle in relation to Microsoft.  It can be ME compared to, or as different from, others, but it doesn’t even need to be that. 

It does need to be clear, specific, and it’s best with your own special flavor.  How you position yourself has everything to do with creating your Village, as I like to call it, of people who know who you are, who know and are interested in what you do, some of whom will buy from you, now and into the future.

I talk with clients a lot about this, and this will be a major topic for me at my TAKE COMMAND EVENT happening in January. 

Let me tell you what I mean.

You were probably trained to do something—a specific healing modality, or particular kind of coaching or teaching, or a certain service profession (like Pilates, floral design, or accounting).  When you present yourself as a practitioner of this particular form—let’s say a massage therapist, a life coach, or a student of Non-Violent Communication or Byron Katie—you are positioning yourself BEHIND that modality or practice. 

You have what I call a “Modality Shield.”
(Yes, I know, it sounds like a contraceptive device!)

The modality is out front and you are in effect hidden behind it.  Now of course your energy matters, and how you express yourself, etc.  Yes, all that matters.  But there’s really not much of YOU in that. 

Your business will really POP when you position yourself out front.  You have gifts, talents and skills—and life experience—that only you have that you bring to whatever it is that you do.  In my Soul Signature work with clients and students I guide you to bring forth that which is within you so that it SHINES forth as only you can do. 

You have to remember that there are people who will only hear the message from you.  And you need to position yourself so that they can hear it.

I did a VSP day (Very Special Person, as my daughter says) recently with a woman with a rich life full of experience, expertise, and passion.  Yet she was struggling to know how to move out of her job and into a business that meant something to her.  In three hours we got clear on her business name, her intention statement (how she answers the question “what do you do”), who her people are, her pricing and packages, how she’s going to rewrite her free offer, and how to develop her first program. 

We did this by positioning HER at front and in the center of her business, not the various things she’s been trained in.  She now stands out, and she can speak directly to who her people are because she knows what they want and need as well.  She started the day confused.  She ended the day with a clear vision and a business. 

I’ve been guiding the clients in my introductory Creating Money Intensive Program to bring out their unique stories.  With one woman, she has a very powerful story about healing her relationship with food, and underneath that healing her relationship with herself.  Even though she wants to help people with their food, she has been sharing this story.  Why?  Because she’s shy about that, even ashamed.  And I exclaimed—that’s exactly WHY you need to share it!!  Because other people are ashamed, too.  And when you have the courage to share your story—including the parts that are not so pretty, and how you’ve healed and evolved through that to a new place of peace and wisdom—it creates connection with your potential clients and helps liberate them from what’s holding them back.  Now THAT is powerful. 

Including her story makes her business POP!  NOW we know why she is an expert who can help guide you through healing your relationship with food—because she’s done it, too.  No longer simply a presenter of modalities, this client can position herself as someone who KNOWS from her own life experience, and who can guide you through the transformation you long for. 

So how are you positioning yourself?  Are you in front or behind in your messaging and marketing?  Are you bringing together the richness that is you and creating a unique and compelling presentation that can only be you?  Are you willing to be visible, to be seen, to tell your empowering story, so that those who need you can hear and see you? 

What can you do, right now this week, that will make your business POP and position you as the go-to person about what you are offering? Let us know!

Sounds like a loaded question, doesn’t it?

What are you worth?

Most commonly this phrase would be used to describe your net worth—your assets minus your liabilities.

In this case, I’m asking about something else.

It’s related to your rate. As my coach, Suzanne Evans, says: “Your rate is your announcement of your self worth.”

Your rate does transmit to your potential clients what you think your services are worth. When coaching my clients, I advise: “Step into a rate that stretches you, and that you can own at the same time. You need to be able to own it, or you won’t believe it and no one else will either. But pretty much everyone undercharges, so you need to stretch beyond what you are comfortable with.”

Chances are that you are not valuing yourself, and your work, to the degree that both deserve.

• Part of that is personal—stemming from being told as a kid not to “toot your own horn” and not to brag. This is particularly the case for women.
• Part of it is cultural—transformational work has not been deemed as financially valuable as professional work, like that of medical doctors, lawyers and accountants.
• Part of it is historical and religious—if you are spiritually and healing focused in your work, you are likely carrying religious programming that you should give away your services to those less fortunate than yourself.

All of it is BS—Belief System crap.

Because the truth is—if people’s lives change for the better as a result of working with you—and I know that many people’s lives change DRAMATICALLY for the better—then your work has tremendous worth.

And so do you. Because your work comes through you, and it can only happen because of you. No one else does what you do, regardless of what you’ve been trained and certified in. No one else has your Soul Signature—the specific gifts, talents, skills and experience that make you totally unique.

Have you bought into the conditioning that says you’re not valuable, not worthy, not good enough to deserve high financial reward for what you do?

Now is the time to Take Command, to seize the opportunity to create a new paradigm and a new economy in which you and your services—your life affirming and life transforming services—are as well rewarded as any other professional.

Healers, spiritual teachers, transformational leaders—and women in particular—without money is an old story. It’s the old paradigm. It’s time to change that as we create the New World Age.

And the change must begin with you.

It must begin with you owning yourself, owning your worth, announcing it to others, standing strong in it. Because as you do, you stand as leader of a new paradigm, a new economy, that fosters vitality, creativity, and spiritual growth.

Want to change the planet?

Begin at home by appreciating and owning your true worth.

My confession—I do have an inner control freak. And I don’t mean a freak for Halloween, either.

Do you? Come on, be honest.

I think most entrepreneurs have an inner control freak. I mean, that’s one reason we want to have our own businesses—we want to be in charge.

In fact I was speaking with a client yesterday, and we were discussing whether or not creating a business or using her impressive skill set would be better for her. And she said: “I need to do my own business—I really like to be in charge.” LOL!

Now I’m not sayin’ it’s a bad thing to have an inner control freak. But, I can say from experience—personal and professional—that it can be really wearing. Because inner control freaks for the most part come out of fear. That’s what I’ve learned.

Control to create the illusion of safety. But you know what? That’s an illusion. Safety cannot come from control—and control can kill creativity.

So what’s an entrepreneur to do? Don’t worry, I am not going to say give up control.

What I am going to recommend is transmuting your desire for control into something else. Something far more powerful, and far more effective. Interested?

And that’s COMMAND. Not control, command. Do you know the difference?

Control comes from fear. Control seeks power over other people and outside circumstances. Control is co-dependent in that it aims to change the outside in order to calm the emotions inside. And it never works—at least not for long.

COMMAND, on the other hand, comes from CONNECTION. Connection inside. Command arises naturally from connection with source, soul, spirit. And command radiates power, soul power, power to create, power to manifest—not power over.

There’s a big difference.

Control shows up in your business when you try to force things to happen—force people to work with you in sales conversations, or force a launch when you’re really not prepared, or force yourself into a box because you think that’s what people want to buy. That’s really not helpful.

Command shows up in your business in you being 100% committed to every sales conversation, and also 100% unattached to what people decide. Because you know, you know, that the right people are coming, the right people are there, and you are just showing up and sorting for the right ones. Or you walk into a room and people pay attention because of the nature of your Being—not because of what comes out of your mouth. Command shows up in your attitude of possibility, your vision, your purposefulness—and your results.

Where does control, and where does command show up in your business? When does fear get the better of you and you want to withdraw or clamp down? And when do you feel solid and stable inside and operate from a deep sense of inner knowing? How can you cultivate that latter and mediate the former?

Owning your power means truly being yourself – not trying to control other people. Where can you own your power and your Self more TODAY?