Is your Inner Critic residing on your business's board of directors (aka the place in your head where you make business decisions)? If so, then you're more likely than not making decisions from a place of weakness rather than strength, which can wreak havoc with your business. Read on to find out if this is the case.
You know that voice. The one that berates you and criticizes you.
"So-and-so has a successful business, what's wrong with you?"
"Your mother (or spouse or friend) was right -- you're not cut out to have a business."
"You only have 6 months left of 2012 and you STILL haven't accomplished anything on your to-do list."
And on and on. You get the picture.
This voice is your Inner Mean Girl or Inner Mean Bully, which I prefer to call Inner Critic (mostly because Inner Critic sounds way too nice for that nasty voice).
Now, while your Inner Mean Girl/Bully can show up in all sorts of instances (i.e. in your love life, as a parent) this is about when she/he decides to put herself on your business's board of directors.
We all have one -- a board of directors residing in your head. This is the place where you make business decisions such as:
* Should I invest in the program or not?
* Should I hire this person or not? (Or should I hire someone period?)
* Is this an opportunity I should take advantage of or not?
* Is this someone I should partner with or not?
* Should I create this product or not?
* Should I complete this marketing task today or not? (Or should I write my ezine or not?)
You see where I'm going. Pretty much any decision you make with your business traces back to your business's board of directors.
Now the problem comes in when your Inner Mean Girl/Bully is sitting on the board (or worse, president of the board). Because if this is the case, you're making decisions from a place of weakness instead of strength. Consider:
* You don't hire someone because you're afraid you won't be able to pay for it, even though you've reached a point you can't grow without putting a team in place.
* OR you spend WAY too much (on a program or multiple programs, on a big team, etc.) and your business can't support that yet.
* You find yourself choosing partners or opportunities that turn into disasters.
* You procrastinate when it comes to completing marketing tasks even though you know it would help stabilize your cash flow.
* You always have "one more edit" or "one more thing" to do with your product or book (which means you never actually start selling it.)
* You can never relax -- you're constantly "doing" yet you're still not moving forward in your business the way you think you ought to be.
* And so on.
To top it off, (as if making poor decisions wasn't punishment enough) your Inner Mean Girl/Bully will beat you up when things go wrong.
There's just no way to win.
So how can you tell if your Inner Mean Girl/Bully is in charge or not? Here are 3 signs:
1. How are you feeling? Do you find yourself suffering from burnout, exhaustion, overwhelm? You probably have an Inner Mean Girl/Bully problem.
2. Do you find yourself procrastinating or maybe you're unfocused? Or maybe you have writer's block or are creativity stuck? This is another Inner Mean Girl/Bully sign.
3. Do you have a history of making bad business decisions? Again, tell-tale sign of an Inner Mean Girl/Bully on your board of directors.
These are just the tip of the iceberg but I think the key is this: if you are unhappy with any part of your business, then it's worth it to see if there is an Inner Mean Girl/Bully lurking about and sabotaging you.
3 Powerful Habits to Set You Up For BIG Success in 2014
If you're like most entrepreneurs, no one taught you what successful habits you should be incorporating into the day-to-day running of your biz. Instead, you brought whatever working habits you learned at either your last place of employment or maybe even from school. And while those habits may have served you at that time, you may be finding they're holding you back from growing your biz. So I want to share 3 powerful habits you can start doing right now to grow a successful, profitable biz, without making yourself crazy.
3 Tips to Getting Your 2014 Marketing Plan Together
It's that time of year to make sure your marketing plan is all ready to go - just in time to kick off the sparkling New Year that's right around the corner! But how do you get a marketing plan together that will actually get you the results you're looking for? Read on for 3 tips to get you started.
Your Website Marketing Plan -- Your Guide to Launching Your Website to the World!
Congratulations! You've just completed the finishing touches on your brand new website, and now you're ready to launch it to the world! Except...how do you do that exactly? What you need is a launch guide for your new site. And you just happen to be in the right place! Read on to learn what you should do.
