hi everyone,

I made a quick video for you here that describes the 2 core challenges that every single entrepreneur has to face.. and what kind of thought process and strategy you need to overcome these challenges.  It’s an important subject to say the least.  Check it out here and leave a comment if you’d like to share your own experience.

all the best,

Kevin

**You Won’t Be Successful Until You Create Something New**
This is a really interesting realization to come up against in business, one that has been surfacing repeatedly a lot in my own work.  When I was young and naive, I used to look at people I admired in business and essentially do what they did.  I tried to act like them, market like them, and be as successful as them.  After doing a lot of inner work and getting really clear on what my purpose is, I came to realize that this was actually one of the main obstacles to the success I desired.

I see a lot of other people doing this, so I think it’s a good time to bring it up.

As our world continues to go through a period of rapid change, the way we do business has evolved tremendously.  Duplication and imitation used to work.  I don’t think they do anymore.  Plugging into a ‘proven system’ to create your own success just isn’t going to happen like it used to.  This is why I think people struggle so much in industries like network marketing.  They try to plug into a duplicatable model.  They do the exact same things as leaders in the industry do.  Their blog looks the same, they have the same training and opt in offers, the same copy, the same products they sell and recommend.

Of course, there are business systems that can and should be duplicated, but the key point is that you can’t expect to be successful if you’re doing the exact same thing that everyone else is doing.

What people want now is innovation and radical uniqueness.  I think one of the most wealth-producing skills is the ability to create entirely new ways of offering your services and products.  There’s a great book about this called Blue Ocean Strategy:  How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant.

Whatever your niche is, I think it’s imperative to do exactly this:  Create new markets within your industry that completely leave your competition behind.  You can only do this by tapping into your creative resources and letting go of everything you have seen done up to this point. (more…)

In my last blog post on merging your big vision with a consistent action plan, I talked about how consistency and planning are 2 of the weak links for many service-based entrepreneurs.  We tend to get really excited about new projects, but often lack the follow through and commitment to have them come to fruition in the most successful way possible.

Blogging and content creation is one of the main areas where many entrepreneurs struggle to maintain consistency (I can certainly relate to this).  Once our blog goes live, we put a ton of frenzied, excited energy into it for the first few days or weeks.  Inevitably, however, our excitement wanes as we often don’t get the immediate results that we long for.  We forget that, like so many online marketing strategies, blogging is a medium to long-term venture that requires patience and discipline.  If we don’t see 10,000 visitors in our first month, we often give up hope and convince ourselves that blogging simply does not work.

I have carefully watched the blogging habits of some of the most successful bloggers online and one thing I have noticed is that all of them post on a fairly consistent basis– and they have been doing so since the first day their blog got started.  It’s this quality of perseverance that perhaps is the greatest factor in building a successful and sought after blog.

This principle rings true whether you have a local business or your blog IS your business and you can attract new leads and customers from all over the world. (more…)

Most service-based entrepreneurs I know have a lot going for them when it comes to creating a high level of business    success.  They tend to be highly intelligent, talented, caring, and compassionate people who have a big vision and truly want to help as many people as possible.  They excel at the service they offer and are among the rare portion of our population who actually love what they do for work.

What’s interesting is how many service-based entrepreneurs struggle to attract enough clients and create long-term financial stability despite all of the wonderful qualities they possess.  I have personally coached a lot of holistic practitioners and life/wellness coaches over the years and it has always been curious to me how many of them struggle in business even though they are so intelligent and intuitive.

Today’s tip is especially relevant if you are someone who sits in front of Facebook a good portion of the day, not really sure how to spend your time.. or you notice that you’re concerned or anxious about the random direction your business is going in.

I think the main problem is that many service-based entrepreneurs rely heavily on their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.  What’s the biggest weakness I see?  Well, it’s one that I certainly notice in myself as well as other entrepreneurs with similar values.

I’ll try to summarize this pervasive weak link as succinctly as possible:

The ability to consistently commit to and take action on a carefully organized and systematic, regularly updated plan.

Service-based entrepreneurs tend to let things happen in a sort of flowing, spontaneous way.  They have a spacious and open view of their business, as they realize that life is a wide open situation without any inherent limits.  When they think about planning their business in a committed and action-oriented way, it often feels like they are clamping off their creativity and cutting off the ‘magic of the moment.’ (more…)