Do you ever struggle with overwhelm, self sabotage and procrastination? Do you ever feel like you are hitting the mental brick wall that stops you from taking action on a project, towards your goals? Do you try to tough it out and just make yourself do it but don’t always succeed?

This is extremely common for Entrepreneurs and it costs you money (not to mention all the wasted emotional energy you spend that could have been better used in putting your plans into action.) Timing is critical in business and getting our mindset to support us is a far greater challenge in business than outsmarting our competitors.

In fact, if you simply focused on programming your mind for success so it supports you in achieving what you want in your business, you will be far more successful than any of your competitors.

Many of you know that I dedicated the last three years to working with entrepreneurs on breaking through their limiting beliefs, self sabotaging patterns and fears. Often the reason those entrepreneurs came to me was that they procrastinated on something they knew they needed to do to achieve their goals. And I helped them get the breakthroughs they needed. Now I want to share with you how you can create these breakthroughs yourself.

So what’s the secret?

The secret is you need to change How you think, so WHAT you think can change.

Einstein once said, A problem can’t be changed when you think the same way you thought when you created it. You’ve got to uplevel your thinking so you can create a solution. You’ve got to change HOW you think and the solution will come. That’s the key.

And that’s where Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) comes in. This is the tool I use to help people change the way they think. And often the solution just presents itself then, just like magic.

I will show you five different ways you can uplevel your thinking in this series.

Here is the first one:

1. Change your Emotional State

Have you ever had the experience of having a problem that seemed so big that it was literally bogging you down you just couldn’t see a way out?
And then you decided to take a walk, or you slept over it and then later in the shower while relaxing suddenly you had the answer to your problem and it all seemed really clear?

This works because when you change your emotional state, your thoughts change. It’s the easiest way to uplevel your thinking.

The results are even better when you change your state to one of complete confidence. Have you ever noticed then when you feel completely confident, problems seem a lot smaller? They are still problems but they have a different proportion and it’s much easier to solve them.

What this one example shows you already is this: It’s not the actual problem that is the issue and determines your response, it’s your perception of the problem.
Change your perception and the answer to your problem always presents itself. You will have a way forward – a breakthrough – a shift that let’s you take action.

In my years of practice I have come to know the common patterns that keep entrepreneurs stuck. And I have used the 5 Ways to create breakthroughs over and over again.

Curious to learn more?
I will take you through life exercises to show you the 5 different ways that you can take charge of your mind and make it your champion and supporter in reaching your goals rather than holding you back.

You can enrol in this free one time only Teleclass here at http://www.clientprosperity.com/teleseminar02.html

Join us for 75min full of value and action. Hope you see you on the call!

Love and Prosperity
Yvonne

Meeting Kendall, my Million Dollar Mentor in Tucson Arizona!

I had an amazing time at the Money, Marketing and Soul Coach Certification training in Tucson Arizona. As you can see, I am evolving and my business is evolving with me. I had been searching for a long time for a way to combine my business expertise with my NLP and Coaching skills and I have finally found it. I now have the tools to not only transform my own business but to help other coaches, consultants, natural therapists and other solopreneurs to transform theirs .

What does that mean exactly? Well, it means evolving my business model to include multiple streams of income, leveraging my time so I can serve more clients while having more time off and yes, making a lot more money. I have no qualms about this, I believe that it’s important to find a way to follow your passion and be paid very well for using your talents.

The business and marketing models I am planning to adopt are unique in the Australian marketplace. I am so excited to be at the forefront and pioneer this exciting stuff before passing it on and having others benefit from it. Stay tuned for more information on this if you are curious to find out how it could help you. I will soon open a separate subscription to weekly Articles on Marketing and Business Building Topics for Coaches, Consultants, Wellness Professionals and other Subject Matter Experts.

Have you ever had a client ask for a discount and quite aside from the fact that you can’t afford to give it because your margin is tight, you don’t want to do it as a matter of princple? You are feeling a bit squirmish about it, and it’s quite clear:

You will need to deny the discount request.

So how the heck do you do that graciously?

I feel the need to go back to the mindset here:

It is important that you are totally at ease with your position, which means:

Assuming that you succeed in communicating your decline of their request tactfully, if the client still chooses to be offended and take their business elsewhere, then that will need to be ok with you.. It is important that you can stick to your principles here.

Let’s take a specific example and play it through:

You provided a proposal to a client, they asked you for a 20% discount to go ahead with the proposal. You don’t want to give any discount because you feel the price is totally justified and lowering would sell you short.

Here is what to check:

- Have you done a good enough job on establishing the value for your client in what you propose?
- have you set out exactly what you will provide and the value of each item?
- have you provided choice (eg. two packages of differing value to choose from)?

Assuming you have done that, and they still want a discount:

Be surprised and ask “oh, I thought you could see the value in this offer, which part of the offer do you not see as valuable enough to justify the full price?”

Now they have to name one, you ask “Is that the only one?” and you can have a specific discussion about the value of that item and all you need to do is demonstrate how that item justifies the value you put on it.

If your client is quite upfront and just wants a special deal, be upfront with them as well by saying:

“I can appreciate that you want to be sure to get exceptional value and when you look at the Return on investment with this offer which is at (say what it is for them) you will see the offer at this price is exceptional value already. I want to make this a true win win for both of us and that’s how I have priced it. Giving you a discount would mean I would feel that I am underselling my value and that’s not a good frame of mind to be in when delivering highest quality service which is what I am striving to do for you.”

This is generally enough for clients to pull back. Nobody wants to have a service provider that feels resentful and therefore provides only second best.

If someone still doesn’t ‘get it’ , I’m afraid you will have to be pretty clear in saying that you don’t give discounts. You believe that you are providing the best possible solution for the job and that’s what you are focusing on. At this stage the client request will be more a haggling contest that you don’t want to engage in.

If you have done good work in your sales process and if you are making it clear in your unique selling proposition that you are competing on quality, not on price, then that should preempt this discussion completely.

Preframing is alwasy easier than reframing after the fact!

Your Business Mindset Breakthroughs Assignment:

1. Apply this tactic either to a discount request or any other request that you need to decline.
2. Share your thoughts and experiences in leaving a comment on this blog!

To your Success
Yvonne

Have you ever been in one of these dilemmas:

- You had agreed to participate in a certain project and then you changed your mind/your circumstances changed and you want to pull out
- a client asks you for something extra on a project that you hadn’t budgeted for and you feel it is unreasonable but don’t want to put them off
- a friend empahtically and really nicely asks you to go out with them but you just don’t feel like it?

And then you ponder it in your head, should I do it or shouldn’t I do it….? and If I was to say ‘No’ or “I changed my mind’ how will they take it and more importantly how will I feel when seeing their disappointed face? Will my benefit be worth the guilt trip I will be on for a while after saying ‘No”?

I know what it’s like, I’ve been there.

Until I understood that it was my mindset that was causing this whole dilemma, meaning I could change it.

Let me ask you this: If your kid’s or partner’s or your own life depended on it, would you be able to say “no” to the person?
Of course you could. Which tells me one thing:

Feeling guilty about saying it, or not saying it at all, means in your mind the other person’s outcome is more important than yours. And that is just not true!

Read this: You getting your outcome is the most important thing!

And before you protest, let me clarify this statement: Sometimes, saying ‘yes’ to someone and going the extra mile is the outcome you want because there is a long term payoff (eg throwing in an extra benefit for a client with whom you want to build a long term relationship). That means you do get your outcome in the end, so you both win!

However, there has to be a strong enough win for you at the end. And please don’t use this way of reasoning to talk yourself into something you don’t want to do.

Way too many people in business and in their personal life, think they are being so good by constantly looking out for others and putting their own needs last. And then they start to feel resentment, exhaustion, depression and burnout. I see it all the time in my coaching practice. These people feel selfless when they do it, not realising that without them receiving something in return so the scales even out, they will burn out. Because on an unconsicious level there always has to be an exchange, you need to get something back, otherwise you can’t sustain yourself in the long term. On an unconsious level we always expect there to be a return even if we don’t like to admit it consciously.

So you might as well be honest with yourself about it upfront. Remember if you don’t eat and drink to become strong yourself you won’t have the strength to help others who need help to feed themselves. It’s the same here, giving too much in the short term will only mean you can’t sustain what you do in the long term because you will burn out.

How do you know then, when to say ‘no’ and when to say ‘yes’?

Your Business Mindset Breakthrough Assignment

Next time you face a dilemma like this ask yourself:

1. What do I get out of saying ‘yes’ to this request?
2. Do I value that outcome highly enough, in other words is my return (emotionally or financially) higher than my investment here?
3. Does my gut feeling say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
4. Listen to your gut feeling as it is always honest, while you might be kidding yourself by talking up your benefits if you are afraid of the other person’s reaction to your ‘no’
5. If you still feel you should say yes, ask yourself “who says you should?” usually it’s an old piece of programming from our parents that says we should and it most likely doesn’t apply to you anymore!

Watch out for my next post where I will give you some language tools to say ‘no’ in a graceful and elegant way, so relationships are maintained while you get what you want!

Until then,
Value yourself, because you are worth it,

Yvonne

I must warn you, I get on a bit of a soap box with this topic, I see people sabotage themselves so often, please go on and read this especially if you haven’t got enough money in your pocket right now.

“What you think about and feel you can mainfest.” Says the Law of Attraction. The Movie ‘The Secret’ and its teachers have popularised it, but it has been around for thousands of years. The Law of Attraction used to be a secret guarded by closed organisations such as the Free Masons. It has only been in more recent history that this knowledge has become available to the general public. When you read on you may find out why:

Does it really work? Can I manifest things I want by holding a thought in my mind?

Yes, I strongly believe that it can be done, I believe that it has worked for me many times. NLP’s principles of how the unconscious mind works and the newest research in Quantum Physics proove it (we cover these princpiples in NLP Masterprac).

There is a condition for it to work though, which I believe most people don’t really take into account and it’s absolutely downplayed in the movie:

You must take ACTION on the opportunities that present themselves!

Obvious you think? Not always. Here is an example:

A few weeks ago I committed to travelling to the US for a Marketing Workshop that I really really wanted to go to. It’s a 7 day trip and costs me a couple of thousand dollars. I had to manifest the extra money to fund this trip.

In the following weeks when speaking with clients and just people in general, I spotted opportunities to be of service with my expertise AND get paid for it that I previously may not have taken advantage of as they were a little outside the usual box.

Here is the point: Someone who is determined to manifest money but then does a lot of friendship deals, discounting, helping people out without being paid for it, misses the chances the universe provides to manifest the money. It’s not just going to show up in your bank account magically, you need to ACT to get it!

A lot of people have limiting beliefs around money that stop them from acting on these opportunities. They think they are selfish and greedy if they do. They believe its important to help everyone out. How can the Universe ever serve them if they constantly sabotage their own manifestation process?

Money represents how much your life’s energy is worth to others. People happily pay for something that represents great value for them! YOU do, don’t you? Often it’s not until they pay for it that they become aware of the value it represents for them, don’t rob that experience from them by undercharging!

Your Mindset Breakthrough Assignment:

Assess where in your life you are currently not acting on the opportunities presented to you! If it’s to do with manifesting money, where are you undercharging or giving things for free that are too valuable to be given away for free? Then ACT to remove this blockage to your manifestation process by changing your behaviour. If you find a stubborn limiting belief that won’t go away, then you want to use NLP techniques to clear it.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to learn how your mind works by learning NLP, so you can stop this kind of self sabotage. Check out the details for our last NLP Practitioner Training starting 21st May. Contact me if you want to discuss this further!

“I work so hard, but I just don’t seem to be rewarded for it financially”
“Somehow my cashflow is always short and I don’t know why”

Sound familiar? It seems to ring true for a lot of people, a lot of them highly educated, ambitious and hardworking. Why is that?

It’s because they have beliefs about money and about themselves that are stopping them from attracting more money into their lives. And, they may not even be aware that that’s the case, because often they are consciously aware of useful beliefs they should adopt, and think they have done so. Well, see, their old limiting beliefs are unconscious. They run in the background, largely unnoticed.

Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern psychology said: ”Until we make our unconscious thinking patterns conscious we will keep calling it destiny.”

Wow, so that really brings it home how strongly our current and future situations are linked with our beliefs.

I want to share with you what I think are the most common belief patterns that are stopping people from having more money and what behaviours they create. So you may (if money is an issue for you) recognize yourself in one or more of these patterns. For most impact answer the question post under the Belief that most resonates with you. Of course if you want to clear these patterns on an unconscious level quickly and lastingly, I recommend you use NLP techniques, they will do it.

Let’s have a look:

1. Money is bad, people who have money are greedy and rip others off

A lot of people were brought up with this limiting belief. People who have this belief often shy away from taking up opportunities that could make them more money. This belief often goes hand in hand with the idea that one has to work hard for money. And if they don’t and still make money than there has to be something dodgy going on. These people often don’t make as much as they would like to and when they do, it runs through their fingers.

The truth is money can’t be bad or evil, only people can. It’s what people decide to do to get money or do with money that can be bad. Money itself JUST IS. Therefore it is just as possible to be a good person as it is to be a bad person and have money. You can decide, and rather than judge people by their money it’s more useful to judge them by their behaviour.

Breakthrough Assignment: If this is you, you may want to think of the way your parents and other significant people in your environment viewed and still view money and how that influenced you.

2. Money is not important

People who say this often believe that asking for money in return for a service is selfish. These are people who give lots of stuff away for free. They are extremely busy and constantly short of cashflow. Often they are cronically undercharging for what they create and provide.

If this is you, be aware that whenever you are not taking money (or not enough) for what you provide, you are sending a message to yourself about what YOU are worth. If you don’t expect a return for what you offer, then you are not valuing what you provide and create (aside from the fact that you will not be in business for too much longer or will never get that pay rise you deserve). Often people with this mindset are doing amazing things that add enormous value and instead of being valued they attract people who take advantage of them, even rip them off or use them as the doormat.

Breakthrough Assignment: You may look at what events and beliefs have impacted your self confidence and self worth in this way. They may have nothing to do with money.

3. I am not good enough to ask for more

This is maybe the most common one. Instead of not expecting a return for their efforts, people with this pattern actually don’t think they deserve to get more even if they wanted to. They feel that if they asked for more, they would be judged with more scrutiny, the people they serve may get more demanding and may not appreciate what they do as much. They believe they score extra points for providing something so valuable for so little money.

Unfortunately that’s not how it works. On the contrary: Most people don’t truly appreciate the value of something if it is underpriced. That includes an employee asking for too small a salary. For most people it’s Expense = Value.

Many people are afraid of being rejected if they ask for ‘too much’. These are the good girls and good boys and the people pleasers amongst us.

Apart from not putting money into your pocket this “I’m not good enough mindset’ leads to resentment and ultimately to burnout. People with this mindset generally work way too hard for the rewards they are reaping.

Breakthrough Assignment: You may want to observe your own buying patterns. How do you make a judgment on others’ prices. And become observant of the self talk that goes on when you reduce your fee for that ‘special’ client or because you really want that ‘special’ job.

Ask yourself, what are your beliefs around what it means to be rejected? (sometimes it’s as drastic as “I won’t be loved” and “I will die”). Notice whether they are realistic.

All limiting beliefs above can be cleared quickly and highly effectively with NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). You can learn these techniques and reprogram yourself to really step into your personal power. Check out our NLP Practitioner Training program starting 21st May.

Here is to your Empowerment,

Yvonne

P.S. Let me know which one resonates with you. I’d love to read how you are going with addressing your beliefs!

I was made aware of this video from one of my friends on Twitter (btw while you are at it, follow me on twitter)

When I watched this I immediately applied it to networking. Many people think that in order to be good networkers they have to be experts, provide incredible value, be someone, etc. when really all that is required, is to make someone else feel good about themselves. Watch this video and discover the true power of connecting with people!

It’s 15 minutes well spent!

Would love to know what you think about it! Please leave me a comment!

Yvonne

What are you telling yourself about who you are, what you are capable of and what you deserve?

Negative self talk often starts as a suggestion we hear a lot from people around us when we grow up. Yes, you have guessed it parents have a major influence on how we think and how confident we become as adults.

I wanted to tell you about two friends of mine who had very different upbringings and how that is reflected in their self image.
Check it out in this short video

Isn’t it amazing how our thoughts become self fulfilling prophecies? My friend Berta (not her real name) has a fantastic ‘can do’ attitude and seems to attract people to help her be successful very easily.

Thankfully NLP gives us the tools to change our self image any way we want. So anyone can build strong self confidence.

Your Business Mindset Breakthrough Assignment:

1. Listen to your self talk, what are the good and the not so good things you tell yourself?
2. Think about where those statements come from, who said that to you?
3. Are those statements really true for you today? What were they based on in the past? Find evidence for the opposite: eg. if you tell yourself: I am not good at making people laugh, think of examples where you did make people laugh!

If you need to boost your self confidence and want to do that easily and effectively I urge you to learn how to use NLP!

My NLP Practitioner Training starts on the 21sth may this year.  Contact me on 0401910 675 if you want to find out more.

Hi there all, yes I am back already because I really want you to get a mindset breakthrough on this one because I know it will lead to a business breakthrough as well!

Do you remember one of the questions from my last post on the “I’m not good enough‘ phenomenon?

“Am I prepared to do what it takes to reach this standard I set for myself?”

Whether you are aware of it or not, you are asking yourself this question every time you are setting standards/goals for yourself. And sometimes your standards are so high that this question sends you straight into a state of OVERWHELM.  Because in your mind, you are picturing all the things you need to do to get to this standard.  For me this is like standing right in front of a huge mountain I need to climb to get to my goal and it feels like the pathway is ‘endless’ and it will take ‘forever’ to get to my outcome. And that’s what I will say to myself in my head with a bit of a sigh.  The next thing that happens is that all Motivation is sucked out of me because it’s all too hard. Can anyone relate to that?

So does it make sense then when I say that thinking  ‘I’m not good enough‘ is often simply a matter of being overwhelmed with all the things that need to be done (in your mind) in order to ‘be good enough‘?

Interestingly, often when you break this ‘mountain’ down, what you find is that it is much more managable than you think. And even if it takes a year or two to get it, that’s still faster than not getting it at all!!!

Interesting, isn’t it?

So here is your Business Mindset Breakthrough Assigment:

Think of something that you feel you are ‘not good enough’ to achieve.  Become aware of that ‘mountain’ you have to climb and ask yourself these  questions:

- What specifically are all those things you need to do, and how long exactly are they going to take? Make a list, write them down including time estimates!

- Do you really need to do ALL of these things in order to reach that standard? Go through them and challenge each one.

- Is the reward you will reach for putting in the time it will take to do this, worth it in the end? How much money will you make, how much enjoyment will you get out of it, how much self confidence, etc….

- If the answer to the above question is yes, then how can you incorporate the steps to this outcome into your daily life? Get your diary out and get specific!

Let me know how you go with this assignment! Would love to hear from you!

Here is to your Empowerment,

Yvonne

Part 1 of a Series of Articles on the “I’m not good enough” Phenomenon

Do you know that sinking feeling in your stomach that happens when your inner critic says to you “You are not good enough, and you know it!…”? This Mindset sucks the life force and all motivation out of you!

This one statement, which really is a limiting belief, is probably the biggest dream killer on earth! And most of the time totally unnecessarily. Interestingly enough I have found that it’s mostly high achievers, ambitious and hard working people who have this negative self talk going on, which includes the majority of my clients. These tend to be the people who have high standards for themselves, are constantly driven to do better and are most disappointed when they don’t reach their own standards.

The feeling/thought of ‘I am not good enough’ appears whenever our reality doesn’t match our expectations. And most people set either completely unrealistic expectations for themselves or don’t even know what their standard for being ‘good enough’ is and therefore constantly feel the need to strive for more.

Let’s start with the latter.

Here is your Business Mindset Breakthroughs Assignment:

Think of an area in your life or your business where you feel you are ‘not good enough’.

Now, ask yourself, what specifically is ‘being good enough’? What does it look like, sound like, feel like when I am good enough? Make it measurable so you are really clear when you have reached the standard you set yourself.

Then set yourself a timeframe in which that standard is attainable and ask yourself, is this realistic?

What do I need to do to achieve this standard?

And am I prepared to put the necessary effort in to achieve it?

How did you go? Chances are that if you are used to beating yourself up about not being good enough, you haven’t stopped and thought about this before. Please do this exercise, it could change your life!

I will be posting more articles on a weekly basis on how to get out of the “I’m not good enough’