Thought for the week

One of my favourite quotes:

“You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it you become someone worth becoming.”
Jim Rohn

As a collector of quotes I am always on the lookout for new ones so tell me what’s your favourite quote?

Yours in prosperity, passion and living leadership
Heidi Alexandra

Daily intentions: life is a creation!

“While you are standing around wondering what tomorrow will bring, remember that life is a creation, not a discovery.” Srikumar Rao

As a corporate refuge I often prided myself (in a strange way) in the ability I had to multi-task and handle anything and everything that life and the job threw at me. No matter what the challenge I was there in the thick of it, problem solving and troubleshooting, managing and instructing.

While it was good to have that kind of strength and confidence in my ability to roll with the punches (particularly daily media issues) it was a thoughtless way to plan my day. In fact my plan usually consisted of 10% planned work and 90% of my calendar ready to tackle the daily dramas.

During my time recently in LA for my coaching mastermind, the concept of ‘batching’ my time and activities was posed. Now I have always been action-oriented and an achiever, don’t get me wrong, but doing this usually meant being ridiculously busy and came often at the expense of myself, my health, my relaxation and planning.

This got me thinking - imagine what I could achieve if instead I saw what life could do with what I threw at it?

Instead of just getting up in the morning to see what happens, I decided to plan my time, to batch my activities and to INTEND my day by setting daily intentions.

While the jury is still out and some days I keep my intentions better than others, I have to say having a plan for how my day is going to be, and then being clear to intend for it to be
that way has been pretty powerful.

Try it out for yourself. Start intending your day. Picture in your minds eye each morning how you want the day to go. Expect it to happen.

Sound too optimistic? Well let me share with you - even if I haven’t achieved 100% of my intention each day I certainly achieve over half of it and isn’t that better than just letting life run my day for me?

Instead of just responding to lifes little dramas, remember life is a creation, not a discovery. Have the intention to create big things for yourself - I know I certainly am!

Heidi Alexandra Pollard - the Living Leaders Advocate

Fellow Mastermind members I highly recommend

I would like to introduce you to an incredibly talented group of entrepreneurs. We work together using social media strategies to push each other to the top of Google. We support each other and learn from one another on a daily basis.

We are the MPC Social Media Tribe!

Please visit a tribe member below…

	Jenny Amon Fenig Jenny Fenig Coaching Description: Jenny is a certified career/life coach, yoga teacher,  new mom support group leader, speaker, and student in the  fascinating journey called LIFE.
	Katherine CHE Life Blossoming Systems Description: Cultivator of Joy, Katherine C. H. E. is an author and expert on the Law of Attraction. She currently works with clients to help them improve any and all areas of their lives — from their health to all aspects of their well-being.
	Phil Dyer Total Business Transformation Phil is a speaker, writer, financial planner, strategic business coach  and recovering workaholic who is dedicated to helping lifestyle entrepreneurs transform their business to support their ideal life,  create conscious wealth and have fun!
	Jessica Eaves Mathews Business Brilliance Blog Description: Jessica is a seasoned business lawyer, advisor and coach for business owners and entrepreneurs. She is also a multi-passionate entrepreneur herself, having launched a number of successful ventures of her own throughout the past 15 years.
	Dr. Robert Fenell Repetitive Strain Injuries Description: Teaching chiropractors how to effectively treat  repetitive strain injuries of the extremities.
	Laura Hollick Soul Art Studio Description: Laura is a soul artist. She has developed a series of Soul Art processes that she teaches and share with others so they can connect with their spirits and transform their lives into the most exquisite version of themselves.
	Linda P. Jones Visionary Wealth Now Linda is CEO and Founder of the Global Institute of Visionary  Wealth and Visionary Wealth Now. She follows her passion for  investing and teaching others how to have investment success  and build wealth.
	Lisa Manyon Creative Writing Services Description: Lisa is a a marketing maniac and press release magician. She helps entrepreneurs take the business message in your head & craft an authentic marketing message to connect with your ideal customer.
	Ellen Marie Martin Conquer Chaos Now!™ Considered a leader in her field, Ellen Martin is a professional  organizer, productivity trainer, motivational speaker and efficiency  coach with a passion for changing lives.
	Christine McIvor Social Media Consultant Description: Christine is a social media junkie. She helps  entrepreneurs and business owners locally get to the top of  Google using simple low-cost marketing strategies.
	Pinky McKay Breastfeeding Simply International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC)  and a Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Pinky McKay is a  Melbourne based writer and editor specializing in health,  education and family issues.
	Debbie McNeill Assisting Stampin’ Up Demonstrators Description: Debbie assists Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators  with their computer and marketing needs
	Terry Monaghan Organizer of Life Description: Terry has built Organizing For Your Life on 25  years of business and entrepreneurial experience. From  corporate executives to solo-preneurs, she helps them get  the right things done, faster.
	Lynne Moore MLM Relationship Goals Coach Description: Coaching women of independent spirit to achieve their key relationship goals.
	Sue Painter Confident Marketer Description:Sue Painter is the President and founder of The Confident Marketer. Sue is passionate about helping solopreneurs create work that is satisfying and financially successful.
	Melody Park Shin Mommy Chick Join Melody as she explores conscious parenting, applying  Universal Principles, in life and business, and living a fabulously  creative life!
	Trudy Scott Overcome Anxiety Trudy helps women overcome anxiety and other mood problems  naturally (using nutrients and food) – and they love that they also  end up sleeping better, have more energy and less cravings.
	Patricia Selmo Women Spiritual Leaders The International Association of Women Spiritual Leaders was  founded to serve the needs of women who are leaders in their  spiritual communities, women who have independent spiritual  practices, and women who are aspiring to be “spiritual leaders”.
	Mitch Tublin Business Strategist Mitch is a Premier Business Strategist, with expertise in Brand Building and Internet Marketing.
	Anita Wheeler Law of Attraction Diva Author of the soon-to-be-released book “The Law of Attraction is NOT a Secret”. Anita trains and coaches “ENTREPRENEURS” how to  be more proactive in their own lives to develop what she refers to as POWER FLOW™.

Get more social to boost your career

I guarantee almost everyone has done some level of ego-surfing and googled their name to see what comes up. While it may sound like a trip down vanity lane googling yourself on a semi regular basis is a great way to track and measure your professional online presence.

Using quotation marks around your name eg: “Sarah Smith” is the cleanest form of searching and will ensure you just get results for your own name (as well as any others with the same name)

It’s a great way to track and measure your presence as well as get a feel for the topics and themes associated with you on the web. Why? Because I guarantee you many prospective employers these days are googling applicants names to confirm resume claims and get a feel for what others say about them as well as what they get up to on the weekend! Sound scary?

With Facebook leading the way and Twitter activity on the rise, Australians are rapidly increasing their participation in social media, content sharing and personal brand building. A recent study showed nearly four in five of Australia’s nine million social media users sent or shared a photo in the past year and nearly three quarters shared a link. The biggest increases in social media usage were reading and posting on Twitter and reading wikis.

Twitter’s audience levels grew by more than 400% in 2009 so if you’ve got something to say, that’s the space!

“The opportunities for brands and companies to tap into the social media phenomenon are really just beginning to emerge and to date we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” states Melanie Ingrey, Research Director for Nielsen’s online business.

Your personal brand is the most valuable asset you have - what are you doing to build your brand online?

Yours in prosperity

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicator’s Coach

Great companies grow their leaders

Thought for the day

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it.”
William Arthur Ward

Results not resolutions

With the new decade upon us, now is the time to review, renew and reignite your plans for what you want the next year to hold in store.

So how can you create results and not just empty resolutions? Simple. Treat the new year as you would any other project and begin with the end in mind.Take a moment to sit quietly and visualize yourself one year from now. What do you want to have accomplished? Who do you want to have become in the process? What kind of relationships do you want have? What kind of experiences will you have had by the end of 2010? 

Allow your mind to paint the picture as vividly as you can - in words, pictures, sounds or feelings - whatever makes it feel most real for you. This will engage your subconscious mind, which is the best way to achieve successful results. 

Write down your visualisation in the form of a letter or story, as accomplishments that have already happened. Doing so will trick your subconscious mind into believing this to be true and it will work for you day and night to make your vision match your reality. 

Another major step to ensure results is the act of writing your vision down and sharing it with others. Doing so propels your subconscious mind make the commitment to reach them. 

My secret weapon to ensure my goals are powerful is to write them in the form of a gratitude letter. As my coaching clients can attest, a key success principle I teach is ‘ink it, don’t just think it’. As an author and teacher I find the narrative form to be very instructive and inspiring as it makes it feel so tangible.

If you are a practical, list writer then you may prefer to use an action plan approach to defining your year ahead. Use quarterly or six month milestones and dot points outlining what you will be do and have at each project milestone along the way.Either way, what matters is that you engage in the process of projecting your future possibility and capturing it on paper. This will give you clarity and focus. 

Working backwards with the beginning in mind will ensure you don’t set yourself up for failure. Many people overestimate what they can achieve when setting goals and end up with so many that they would have to work 20 hours a day, exercise for five hours a day and save 90 per cent of their earnings. Impossible!

This year instead of worrying about resolutions, focus on the evidence of the results you will have achieved by this time next year. And most of all remember, real success is not about having it all, its about being, doing and having those things that matter!

Yours in prosperity, passion and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicator’s Coach

Is your brand as clear as Epsom salts?

My own coach from the US Therese Skelly recently posted the following article and I thought it had some great points of interest relevant to communicating your personal career brand. Enjoy and thanks Therese!

Is your brand as clear as Epsom salts?

This has got to get the award for the WORST marketing ever. Reading a bag of epsom salts (don’t ask!) I was surprised from a marketing perspective at what it said “Epsom Salt – Magnesium Sulfate U.S.P – Natural Mineral” (and here’s where it gets interesting….)

A soaking aid for minor sprains and bruises

A saline laxative for the short term relief of constipation

A plant nutrient for vigorous lawns, flowers, plants, vegetables and trees.

Now I don’t know about you, but I doubt even brilliant marketers like my friend Michele PW or the famous Dan Kennedy could come up with copy for a product that helps with bruises, constipation, and gardening! All the marketing messages I teach about having to have a unified message just get thrown out the window with this thing.

As I re-read this bag of Epsom salts, I had the fantasy that a bunch of marketers were sitting around brainstorming, and finally they said, “What the heck, let’s just throw it all in.  We can’t figure out what to say, so we’ll just list the uses and let it go from there.”

With epsom salts, you pretty much know what you use it for.  And unlike coaching or whatever business you are in, there’s only one variety.  There’s not mint flavored, low fat, west coast, designer salts.  You get one thing.  Where you put it is your own business!  But it makes it easy because there’s only ONE way it’s delivered.

But in your business you don’t have the ability to have a crappy marketing message because you can’t figure out if you work with business owners, or mom’s, or teens, or people in transition.

That’s what this article is about.  Just because Walgreen’s can get away with having a generic product with bad packaging, as a small business owner, you can’t.  Your only choice is to narrow your focus, get crystal clear about who you serve, and what they get, and then go about creating compelling language around that.

So where do you start?

The things you need to be able to clearly articulate are what you do (as in your unique expertise) who you do it for (target market) and what problems you solve for them.  Most people start out as generalists, but the goal is to refine your market, offering and services even tighter as you get more and more sophisticated.  If you are stuck here, grab a mastermind partner or survey some old clients to get more information about how they benefited from working with you.

Why is this important?  Success is about being seen as the foremost expert in your industry. 

Well I hope you enjoyed Therese’s article - something to ponder because unlike Epsom salts, there’s no one else like you!

All the best

Heidi Alexandra Pollard

The Communicator’s Coach

Personal Communication

Personal communication is one of the most common aspects of our human conversations. Personal conversations are an essential facet in almost every one of our relationships. And one might say that the quality of those relationships is dependent upon our abilities to verbally communicate.

I have discovered in the past few weeks through my own life  just how powerful interpersonal communication skills can be in shaping our personal relationships. Even as the “Communicator’s Coach” I don’t always get it right and lately I have had some doosies. So I thought I would go back to the basics and refresh for my own purposes my five key foundations for effectively building upon and improving your personal communication skills.

Foundation #1: Be interesting and interested - know what’s going on in the world around you, keep up to date with current events and trends, as well as your personal hobbies and other interests that you can share or ask questions about during personal conversations.

Foundation #2: Develop great listening skills and know when to speak and when to listen. As a rule I believe in the Pareto principle - speak for 20% of the time, listen for the other 80%.

Foundation #3: Be fully present - make and maintain eye contact with the other person while speaking and listening. Turn away from the computer, television or any distractions so you can be there 100% with the other person.

Foundation #4: Audience centric - use language in your conversation that is familiar to your listener, don’t use fancy words or terms just to show off! Learn some basic body language it will help you to read whether they are understanding and in rapport with you or not. 

Foundation #5: Be real - be genuine, show and express an interest in what the other person is saying. Try to turn down the little voice in your own head and instead focus your attention on the other person, rather than on yourself.

Personal communication skills are one of the most powerful and strategic assets you can possess. People with effective communication skills have a real strategic advantage for business, relationship and social success.

If you would like to learn more about becoming more effective in personal and business communications, please contact Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicator’s Coach today through her website at http://www.leadingvalue.net or http://www.boostyourcareer.com.au or by email at heidi@leadingvalue.net

Play to your strengths

I always say it pays to play to your strengths. But how do you work out which areas are your greatest strengths that will also boost your career and earn you more money?

Answer - follow the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule. Developed by Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, this short, simple rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort or activity. 

Consider for example if you are in sales, I bet around 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Conversely, 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers and 80% of the profits made in your industry come from 20% of the companies. 

So what can you do about it? Well for starters, keep track, test and measure so you can identify which of your customers and areas are most valuable to you and returning the greatest amount without the need for you to work any harder. Similarly identify those that are draining your energy so you can better tailor your marketing spend and your valuable time based on true customer demand.

Another area to consider for example is your staff. Who in your team is a great performer and what you can you do to help them achieve even better results? Feed them, teach them and encourage them and they will return the investment to you in spades.

Until next time, all the best

Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicators’ Coach