How To Think Big and Lead With Authenticity

 How To Think Big and Lead With Authenticity by Sheri McConnell

Here are six “ways of being” that all authentic and visionary leaders practice. These are leaders that lead with purpose and are strategically creating positive change in the world. These leaders don’t have to focus on the bottom line all the time because their results are so powerful that their business bank account just grows as a result of how attractive their business energy is. Let me explain:

1) Always Be Positive and Grateful

This behavior or this way of being is so powerful and allows you to anchor all lessons and grow from them.  Your ability to see forward movement in every part of your business at every stage is exactly what attracts more success, more money, more exciting experiences, and more amazing people into your world.  No matter what your business or your life looks like today, you must see the lesson in it all and be grateful and welcome it. Genuinely welcome it in. And when you do, you will be rewarded with innovatiive ideas and a ha’s from the universe. On the flip side, if you aren’t positive, you will struggle more just to stand still. Life and business can be effortless or it can be a constant struggle. Know this: You are the core reason whatever you are experiencing right now is happening. Good or bad. Being positive and grateful allows you to see what works and what decisions have been made from ego vs. from the universe that flows through you.

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The Two Most Important Intentions You Can Set In Your Life and Business

The Two Most Important Intentions You Can Set In Your Life and Business by Sheri McConnell

Setting intentions is a conscious way of keeping yourself from going through life on autopilot. You can set an intention each morning, before a meeting or appointment, or even before you go to bed to guide your dreams. Marcia Weider defines intention this way: “to have in mind a purpose or plan, to direct the mind, to aim.” By practicing intention setting you can change your behaviors and eventually accomplish all of your goals. Some changes can happen in a moment, like a changed mindset for an instance and other growth requires the continuous practice of intention setting.

I believe that there are two primary intentions you can set that will dramatically affect your life and your business. These intentions can literally create A New Way of Being in your life.

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Pay Attention to the Two M’s and Your Business Will Soar

Pay Attention to the Two M’s and Your Business Will Soar

After ten years of running a 7 figure online business, I have concluded that success can be narrowed down to two specific areas of mastery.

I call them the two M’s — Mindsets and Marketing

And I want to make a BOLD statement here and say that if you can focus your efforts on mastering the Mindsets and the Marketing in your business, you will be successful!

First, let’s discuss the Mindsets…

After years of learning and growing and accomplishing many goals I have set for myself, I decided that no matter what you decide to do in and with your life, your mindsets matters most.

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Three Healthy Money Mindsets That Will Help You Grow Your Business

Three Healthy Money Mindsets That Will Help You Grow Your Business

Your relationship with money and how your feel about it determines your success. Period. If you feel shame when you have debt or if you are paralyzed when making a certain investment because of a relative number, then your money mindsets are affecting your results. To be successful, it is crucial that you begin a lifelong study of healthy mindsets and behaviors you should have where your money is concerned. Mindsets are energy just as money is energy. And you can literally attract money by learning how to experience money in a healthy way. Here are three money mindsets that you can learn that will help you grow your business.

1) Customers Want To See You Invest In Your Business Before They Are Willing To Invest In You

Have you ever visited a website and subconsciously decided this website wasn’t worth your time or money? Of course you have! Internet visitors do it everyday. Yet, many business owners think that they can convert visitors to members without putting there best foot forward on their website. They expect visitors to invest in them when they aren’t willing to find a way to even invest in themselves (their website) first. Trust me, I get cash flow issues. But if you can understand just the basic rule of “invest in your website and your customers will invest in you faster” then you are ahead of at least 75% of the businesses that exist on the Internet today. And it doesn’t cost as much as you would think at all. The costs have come down substantially over the last five years as innovative new companies have popped up to serve online businesses. There are three core areas I have my clients invest in to have the highest ROI (return on investment) on their websites. They are:

- Invest in the latest technologies such as Wordpress.org that allow you to integrate multiple innovative plugins and blogging software.
- Invest in professional copywriting or invest in learning the skill yourself
- Invest in a good designer that understands how to convert visitors to paid customers or members
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Three Ways To Use The Most Important Business Strategy That Exists

Three Ways To Use The Most Important Business Strategy That Exists

Did you know that there is a under the radar strategy that exists that you can take advantage of right now and it can immediately catapult your success.

That strategy is positioning.

Positioning is the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization.

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

At its core, positioning empowers you to take control of your business and use leverage exponentially by leveraging others expertise. The following are three ways you can start changing the way people relate to your company.

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Three Ways To Use The Most Important Business Strategy That Exists

Three Ways To Use The Most Important Business Strategy That Exists

Did you know that there is a under the radar strategy that exists that you can take advantage of right now and it can immediately catapult your success.

That strategy is positioning.  

Positioning is the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization.

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

At its core, positioning empowers you to take control of your business and use leverage exponentially by leveraging others expertise. The following are three ways you can start changing the way people relate to your company.

One-Use a Powerful Business Model

Before you choose your target market, before you build your website, before you learn the latest online marketing strategies; you must choose an equitable and passive business model that allows your customers to see you as a leader in your industry. Not as a player, but as a leader. Most entrepreneurs start businesses without ever considering their business model and then they spin their wheels for years working a service-based business where they start over each day and have nothing to show for their previous work. Some examples of powerful business models are:

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How To Behave Like A CEO by Sheri McConnell

How To Behave Like A CEO by Sheri McConnell

One thing I know for sure, is that the sooner a business owner begins to think like a CEO (Chief Entrepreneurial Officer), the faster their business will grow. Below are five ways you can start behaving like a CEO today!

1. Switch from the Big Picture to the Micro Picture Each Day-To run a successful company, you must be able to see the big picture to plan ahead and also be able to see the many parts of your business at a micro level and understand how they relate to each other because all the parts do affect each other. To motivate your team you will need to be able to communicate the big picture and still be able to brainstorm every part of the business with each of your high-level team members as needed. Your ability to be able to successfully switch between Big and Micro Picture in your business will determine your success more than anything else.

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How To Organize for Tax Time

The words “simple” and “tax time” have probably never been uttered in the same sentence. Well, not until now at least. The key to a stress-free tax season is being organized all year-round. Trying to organize a week before or, even worse, the night before April 15th is setting yourself up for failure.

Why You Should Organize for Tax Time

Organizing for tax time helps you avoid misplacing important receipts and documents. Your stress level will be lower because you won’t be rushing around at the last minute trying to get to the tax preparer and/or post office. Being organized for tax time also helps you save money because you are more likely to keep track of deductions if you have a system and you won’t be charged a higher fee for having your tax preparer go through your piles of receipts.

How and What To Organize for Tax Time

The only way to organize any object is to assign a home to it. Designate a filing cabinet or storage bin made to hold hanging folders for your year-round paper storage. Create folders for receipts, credit card and bank statements, etc. You will make a folder for anything you spend money on and need to keep track of for tax purposes. Have a filing schedule. I usually take one day a month to pay the monthly bills for my three businesses and to do all my filing. During the month, I put all my documents into one of two places until my filing day. This keeps everything organized with very little effort. I have one folder designated for current bills to be paid and then a lateral shelving unit that I stick everything else in for all three businesses and for my personal documents. No matter what, no less than once a month, I file everything from the shelving unit into my filing cabinet in the appropriate folder.

Now, where do we file our papers? Each year, you should designate a large accordion envelope or section of your filing cabinet to your tax papers. Some of the tax papers you will be filing will include your W2s, 1099s, mortgage interest statements, bank interest statements, real estate tax statements, investments statements, and receipts for charitable donations. Most of the papers/receipts you will file will fall into the following categories: salary, real estate, medical, childcare, and investments.

How Long Should I Keep My Financial Records

First of all, make it a habit to throw away as much as you can that you don’t need to keep like the envelopes that come with your statements, your ATM slips after they have been recorded in your check register, credit-card slips (don’t forget to shred them if they show your credit card number), utility, phone, and cable bills after you have paid them.

Now, on to the documents you should hang on to. Hang on to all monthly statements of financial accounts (bank, investment, etc.) one year until you reconcile them with the year-end statements. Hang on to federal and state income tax returns and related receipts and statements for at least three years. One investment company recommends keeping all tax returns and related information for six years if there is a possibility you may have under-reported your income by 25% or more. When it comes to business equipment or home improvements, you keep those records as long as you have the item (printer, house, etc.).

Simple Tax Time

Everyone has a different financial situation and these tips are offered as guidelines to simplify tax time. Being organized at tax time and year-round should allow you to lead a calmer life and to have greater control of something that you can, and should, plan for. I hope a few of these tips helped and that you have a stress-free tax season as we head into the next year.

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the President of the National Association of Women Writers (http://www.NAWW.org). She helps women writers and entrepreneurs discover, create, and profit from their intellectual knowledge! Free reports for writers available with subscription to NAWW Weekly. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband Seth and their four children. Contact her at naww@onebox.com or her toll free number at 866-821-5829.

My Favorite Entrepreneurial Tool—Deciding My SWOT

As the owner of four online companies, my job is to sit down every year and decide my SWOT for the next 12 months and then to consistently revisit my SWOT throughout each year and tweak as needed. I base my decisions on my experience and the emerging trends in the industries I serve.

I also network, engage in learning with mentors, and a lot of the time I simply go left when everyone else goes right. I am a rebel that way and it works simply because it helps my companies stand out in a crowded marketplace.

SWOT is my favorite tool to help me understand at the strategic level how to go left when others go right. Read more