As a business owner, one of the things that is becoming clear to me is the importance of imperfect action, or choosing progress over perfection.

In my world, imperfect action may look like:
The email that goes out with a typo, despite reviewing it twice
The timeline that isn’t as spacious as we would like but gets the job done
The sales video that isn’t as polished as I’d like but truly shares my heart
The website that is far from what I want it to be but still engages my tribe

I’m sharing this with you because in truth, imperfect action is not easy for me – it goes against my natural human tendency to want to look good and to model what I teach. But it always brings some kind of reward to both myself and the team. Sometimes it’s in the form of sales; other times it’s in the form of a referral. But we are always paid a huge dividend in the form of a new distinction that we can take forward to our next attempt or project.

So today, I am calling you into imperfect action. Because imperfect action always trumps taking No Action At All!

Embrace Imperfect action by…

• Looking to your list of good ideas or prohects you have been putting off and taking your first step – no matter how messy it might look!
• Being willing to get messy and feel awkward and clumsy at first
• Surrendering to the truth that no matter how hard you try, you will always want it to be better–and that’s what makes you so awesome!
• Celebrating that your imperfect action will be rewarded – with results or clarity!

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Masterminding business growth, entrepreneurship

When you are the CEO of your own business, you have the potential to be pulled in ten different directions at once. It’s essential that you find some way to structure your time so that all areas of your life receive the attention they need. My method of time blocking involves choosing a primary focus or theme for each day of the week. This way, I know which hat I’m wearing each day! And this way of planning allows me to focus on one of the five archetypes of entrepreneurship each day. You will develop a time blocking strategy that’s unique to you and your business, but here’s what a typical week looks like for me.

On Mondays, I focus on meetings, planning, and directing my team. The theme of the day is to keep the business moving forward and make sure everyone has what they need to succeed.

Tuesdays are my creative days. I get to access my knowledge and put it to work in new and exciting ways. It’s amazing how rejuvenating it can be to focus on your core strengths and messages!

Wednesdays are more open, flexible days. I can continue working on content creation from Tuesday, or I can catch up in another area.

Thursdays are my business coaching days – my opportunity to be a cheerleader, strategist, mentor, and whatever else is needed.

On Fridays, I focus on outreach. This is the day when I schedule meetings and phone calls and make a point to try to connect with people. It’s really nice to be able to tell someone, “I’d really like to get to know you better” and know that I have dedicated time for that purpose.

Whatever the elements of your schedule, setting up a daily theme will tell you who to be each day and help you to give the best of yourself in any situation.

As you look at the week ahead, look for 30 minute time blocks during which you will commit to making progress in a particular area of your business. It might be marketing, lead follow-up, connect calls, personal growth or answering emails – just to name a few. The key is to block off a particular chunk of time during which you will make progress on an important aspect of your business. I think you will find that time blocking helps you to be more focused, more creative and more satisfied in your work!

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Masterminding business management, entrepreneur, scheduling, time blocking

In the course of growing my businesses, I have found that pursuing perfection can derail a project or drive me bonkers if I allow that mindset to take over. When you care so much about a project, you want everything to be just right. But this way of thinking is not only unrealistic – it also keeps you from the single most important element of business success…inspired action!

Executing a big project isn’t always pretty. It can be messy, cumbersome, and a bit chaotic at times…and that’s OK as long as it gets you into action. So as you tackle your next project, banish your inner perfectionist and allow the learning to come from your mistakes. This is how you get better each time around.

A recent launch I conducted was anything but perfect. But the good news is we made a profit, expanded our reach, and learned so much that we will take forward to the next launch. That’s what business-building is all about! So this week, I challenge you to quiet your inner perfectionist. Get messy, make mistakes, try something you’ve been meaning to try…and see how accepting the imperfection can open you up to new successes.

One of my favorite sayings is… “anything worth doing well, is worth doing poorly at first.” Need a little help envisioning your life without perfectionism? Schedule a strategy session with one of my business mastery coaches. Get started here!

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth, Sales

OK, it’s time for some true confessions. How many emails are in your Inbox right now? I don’t mean just the bolded emails that have not been looked at. I’m referring to all of them – opened and unopened. Over the years, I’ve heard it all, from a few dozen to over ten thousand! Yikes. Here are a few questions to see if you are suffering from inbox overwhelm.

• Are you keeping any emails in your inbox as a reminder of an action step you need to take?
• Do you have emails in your inbox simply because you don’t want to lose the information or forget a point?
• When you open your email do you have a “not-so-good” feeling when you see the mass of emails screaming for your attention?
• Have you ever felt like blocking the entire slew of emails and sending them off to the recycle bin?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you are not alone. Inbox Overwhelm seems to afflict even the most successful entrepreneurs. How about you?

Read more…

Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth, Uncategorized productivity, progress, strategies

I’ve been on a quest lately to seek out business thought leaders that I can learn from, connect with and possibly profile in my six month Business Mastery Program for small business owners; individuals whose work is born out of experience, rather than theory or hype and delivers comprehensive, practical advice on how to grow a small business.

Sure, there are legions of niche gurus whose wisdom is tried and true. Innovators like Seth Godan whose perspective of marketing is fresh and mind-shifting and Toney Shui who is creating a global paradigm around how we serve our customers. Then there are those that focus on the growth strategies of corporate America – Peter Druckers’ In Search of Excellence and Jim Collins’ Good To Great. While some growth strategies of these corporate giants hold wisdom for the little guy, they don’t always translate into practical, day-to-day steps on how to reach your first million and stay sane and solvent along the way.

Then there is the highly respected small biz guru of the 90s, Michael Gerber. He helped shaped the entrepreneurial experience  by pointing out the three-way battle between the Entrepreneur, the Manager and the Technician.  I myself was able to navigate the rocky terrain and take my first business venture to the 1 million mark in the late 90s, thanks to his advice. Read more…

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth business mastery program, exclusive

I’m asked this all the time…“Jane, how do you get so much done?”

The truth is, time management for Entrepreneurs is essential to success but not typically something that comes naturally.

So to keep myself on track and in service to my clients, I’ve actually made it a habit of tracking how I get so much done in a day.

I offer 10 tips here. Let me know which tip is your favorite!

1. Perhaps first is, I’ve got good at saying NO. No to tasks that don’t light me up, projects that aren’t aligned with my goals, clients that aren’t in sync with what I offer. “No” is the best efficiency tool you will ever have.
2. I know my “power rhythms” and I work them to my advantage. I know myself – how I’m wired and I design my day around that. I know when I’m best at writing, networking, closing deals, leading my team or creating a strategy. Different tasks require different parts of me and I’ve learned to move with my natural rhythms. Read more…

Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth inspiration, progress

One of the greatest gifts (and challenges) that business owners face is the juggling of the many roles of the entrepreneur. On a daily – even hourly – basis we are called to shift gears and perform tasks that are as varied as the items on our “to do” list. It’s the source of entrepreneurial stress that sends some into overwhelm and others to the sofa in an effort to shut out the demands of business ownership.

Knowing that not a lot gets done eating Bon Bons on the sofa, I’ve honed a strategy that supports me in moving through my day with greater ease and effectiveness. It’s my way of calling forth the traits and skills that are required for the myriad of tasks on my plate. Call them roles, archetypes or alter egos, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they help me experience my days with more joy and effectiveness and that’s pretty cool. Meet the many parts of me…

The Visionary is the Dreamer with their eye on the future and their feet firmly planted on the ground. When we step into the role of Visionary, we stand in possibility and see trends and opportunities that the other parts of us can’t see. It’s the Visionary that can champion a cause, align the team with what needs to get done and rally the masses around one unifying vision. The Visionary measures the short and long term strategy against the core values of the company, making sure the team never loses sight of their overriding purpose. It’s also the Visionary that inspires others, stimulates collaboration and ultimately understands that the vision only happens when the right team is aligned. Read more…

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth inspiration, productivity, strategies

One of the things that continually astounds me is how the simple act of “getting clear and focused” can literally transform the experience of my days and the results I get to enjoy.

I’m inspired to share this on the heels of a full day of planning yesterday, during which I brought together various team members (live and virtually) to discuss our shared vision, define our key strategies, establish our priorities and get clear about where each of us will be “working our magic” to make it all come together over the next two months. Were there other things I needed to be doing? From phone calls and emails to our next program launch, there were lots of things I could have been doing for that 7 hour stretch of time. But the reason I make time for these strategic Planning days is that I know that for every hour I not only save 4 hours in productivity, I also give my team the gift of clarity, contribution and collaboration – all of which keep them productive, fulfilled members of my team.

With clarity about where I should be investing my time each day and our priorities clearly laid out for the rest of my team, we can ward of overwhelm and step into that sweet space of confidence, joy and purposeful action.

Purposeful Planning…

• Gives you a sense of direction, meaning, and purpose
• Reduces uncertainty, anxiety, doubt and fear Read more…

Business Growth, Business Vision, Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth inspiration, progress

I’m feeling really alive today. Not a manufactured sense of aliveness conjured up to mask the not-so-good feelings that might otherwise be there.  This morning, my aliveness feels real, grounded and sweet.

So I’ll take it into my day as I cross off the “to dos,”answer the emails, make the calls and complete the projects.

What’s cool is that lately I’ve been feeling this sense of joy and peace – even in the midst of my crazy life of growing two businesses, raising a son, nurturing a marriage and celebrating life with friends.

So I think I’ll use this – right here in my morning practice.

As a student of my own personal transformation I want to linger here awhile in this sweet sense of aliveness. I want to get curious as to how I arrived here. If I can understand what brought me here, I can be more mindful in returning to this place – at will. If I understand how I got here, I can take it into my work with my clients as I support them to find joy, freedom and fulfillment as they grow their business. And finally,I can share it with you as I am sensing that “feeling truly alive” is something you may be seeking as well. Read more…

Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth inspiration, strategies

OK… so I did it. I’ve started writing my book. I wrote the first pages last weekend and umm… gulp.

While I’ve been sitting with the desire to write another book for some time – it’s been a recent series of nudges that pushed me into action. That and the inner voice saying… it’s time Jane, it’s time!

So I’ll be using my occasional blog posts as a place to share the evolution of what I’m anticipating will be some pretty cool and innovative thoughts around helping solo entrepreneurs experience more joy, more fun and oh yes… higher revenues along the way.

So in an effort to keep the Inner Critic at bay I’ll begin with WHY. Why embark upon this journey of putting my thoughts about growing a successful business in a book?

First – not only are entrepreneurs my favorite people on the planet, I am also one of you. Having founded four successful businesses over the last 24 years, I know the feelings of excitement when you reach a milestone, close a deal or make a difference while making a profit. It’s sweet. Read more…

Maintaining Mindset, Personal Growth inspiration, productivity, progress