Sunday mornings is when I like to catch up with myself and sometimes, like today, that can take me down interesting new paths of contemplation. For me, that means discovering facets of something and applying it in a way that can help entrepreneurs build their businesses. (I know… but I really do live this stuff!!!)

Anyway, on this particular fine Austin Sunday morning, I got into youtube videos (otherwise called the land o’ the lost!) and there was one that was, well, oddly thrilling…

So, do you remember the 1970’s rock song ‘Smoke On the Water’ by Deep Purple?

Now – imagine it Japanese style! Seriously – the formal red robes, full Japanese orchestra, the male chanters sitting lotus-style – the whole nine yards. Then add Russian sub-titles on top of all that…  I mean, holy COW! THAT is a unique rendition of an old classic!

And here’s what I learned from it:

* It’s possible to take something known and make it your own, turning it into something completely new.
* It’s interesting to do the unexpected. (I mean, come on… formal Japanese instruments plucking rock music?)
* There is universal appeal in anything human.

And each of these principles leads to success in entrepreneuring. Maybe they inspire you to think about your business in a new way too?

To watch the video yourself, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1A9rYIVHyM

And then I’d love to know what you get from it when you have a minute to share…! ;+)

To Odd Thrills In Entrepreneuring ~~~

Lynn

P.S.: To watch Deep Purple play it themselves during a live concert, here’s another video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MSyFA84u48 (the song actually starts at 3:05 into the almost nine minute video). It’s a little different than the Japanese version!

It’s official – we are just hours away from being halfway through 2010! (Yes, already…!)

Since that one might have caught you by surprise, spend a few minutes on this ‘mid-year stretch’ to check in on you’ve been up to and what you can shift so 2011 doesn’t come in as a surprise. ;=)

1. What have you accomplished since January that needs to be celebrated?

2. What relationships have you created or deepened since January?

3. In what ways have you grown as a person since January?

4. What discoveries or turning points have shifted the growth of your business since January?

5. Where can you see that you’ve been playing small since January?

6. In what ways have you invested in your growth through programs, seminars or a mentor?

7. Are there any outstanding promises or agreements you’ve made to yourself or others that you’ve yet to fulfill? If yes, what will it take to complete them?

8. What can you do to release the regrets from what you’ve created or experienced since January?

9. In one word, summarize the energy of your last six months. Now, summarize the energy you intend for the next six months.

10. What do you commit to releasing in order to move forward more effectively?

11. Where is your business showing you that it’s time for you to grow? 

12. How can your future business choices create a bigger legacy than they have up until now? 

If this ‘snapshot’ shows you that it’s time to be, do or have something different in your life and/or business, please make it happen. This is your one shot in life – every moment counts and we don’t get them back. The first six months of 2010 are already complete! Make the next six months count for what really matters to you.

What’s the number one thing that constricts your business growth? Fear.

Fear is the number one thing that blocks you from taking action. If you find yourself unable or unwilling to take an action that you know or believe will be beneficial, the root in there somewhere is fear.

Martha Beck says, “The process of spotting fear and refusing to obey it is the source of all true empowerment.”

And conscious entrepreneurs, independent service professionals, creative thought leaders, speakers and solution visionaries will ALL consciously choose empowerment over being downtrodden!

However, what’s so interesting is that most people name fear a lot of other things:

* the economy,

* other people’s opinions, judgments and expectations,

* distractions like overwhelm or not knowing how to prioritize,

* all the reasons why they can’t do something,

* what if _____ happens?,

* creative avoidance strategies – like the domino game (if I get this done, then I can do that),

* preparing to prepare in order to be prepared, and,

* a myriad of other ‘disguises’.

Whatever you call it – the bottom line is fear.

Explore fear and all its’ forms so that you can succeed in going beyond it.

Like the boogeyman, fear gets a whole lot smaller and a lot more manageable when you can call it out in the light of day for what it is in reality.

This brand-new 60-page ebook, written in easy-to-read conversational style, not only explores and explains fear but goes further by showing you how you can actually HARNESS the personal power that fear holds hostage from your consciousness with practical ways to tap into it and RECLAIM your energy for positive momentum.

To order your copy of the Face the Fear and Grow Your Business ebook for just $27, go here: http://tinyurl.com/ygqq7ej

Be proactive in acknowledging, overcoming and taming one of the most powerful motivators in the human psyche – fear – so you can use the energy of it to grow your business.

The investment of your time and energy in perusing this material can pay off in ways that you may not be able to imagine now… but you’ll know it the next time fear comes up and you embrace it as a power source to get more of what you want in, for and through your business! ;=)

What are the fears that you’re facing now? Or what are the ones you’ve faced successfully? I’ve love to hear… let me know below!

Life gives us messages all the time; as an energy-aware person who is choosing to honor your gifts by sharing them with others, you will get special messages that ‘civilians’ don’t have the ‘opportunity’ to handle.

Here are just a few of them that you might be familiar with:

● I don’t have enough ________ (time, money, resources, support, skills, etc.)

● I don’t know how to ______ (talk about what I do, create a website, write marketing promotions, etc.)

● I feel different from ‘normal’ people – why can’t it be easy?

● Sure, I’m leading the way but it’s hard and lonely

● I feel like I’m being chased (by debt, by clients, by workload, etc.)

● My projects seem like they never end and take more than I think

● If I stop, it all falls apart but if I don’t take a break, I’ll fall apart!

● It seems like I get blocked when I try to do something new

● I take it pretty hard – as a personal rejection – when people don’t buy what I’m offering

Depending on how you perceive these kinds of messages, you will create your experience with them. You can either give in to the lure of what they seem on the surface, which means believing the obvious, or you can choose to see what the message is really inviting you to explore.

In other words, it’s not about what happens but what you choose to believe about and what you choose to do about it. For example, if a potential customer doesn’t purchase what you have to offer, it isn’t about YOU – the offer wasn’t clear, the value wasn’t established for that person, or maybe they learned that they needed to pursue another solution that was a better fit for them (and it’s likely that you want them to find their best answers anyway, right?).

You will experience the effect that you are most familiar with, because that’s what you expect. You will, like every other human, seek to make yourself right – albeit unconsciously – by finding the connection through what you know. If you perceive the messages you get as a result of living your purpose through business as reinforcements to what doesn’t feel good, you are proving some part of yourself (the part that is requesting clarity and healing) to be right in staying stuck.  

The points that it’s not about your abilities, but about your choices. It’s not about doing business, but about becoming who you are through your business. It’s not about seeing the downside of the message, but about recognizing your opportunity to grow disguised as that feeling, challenge or situation.

May you choose to ‘read’ your messages in a new way – one that supports you in becoming all of who you are here to be.

So what messages are you getting lately? I’d love to hear… let me know in a comment below!

TED Talks is an amazing resource that gathers the brightest minds of our time and gives them 20 minutes to give the lecture of their life. The live events are sold out for the next ten years, I understand, but the lectures are shared via online video afterward.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of “Eat, Pray, Love”, and she talks about the pressures of creativity. She explores the idea that we don’t have to ‘be’ a genius but that we can ‘have’ a genius.

Using her own experience, she talks about how people reacted to her teen-age desire to write by asking “Aren’t you afraid the humiliation of rejection will kill you? Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to work your whole life at this craft and nothing ever going to come of it and you’re going to die on a scrap heap of broken dreams with your mouth filled with bitter ash of failure?”

Many entrepreneurs I work with have this kind of underlying fear, and it’s often created (or reinforced) by well-meaning family and friends who want to protect them. And yet, there’s something pulling that entrepreneur (you) forward… maybe it’s your creative genius?

Get inspired by watching Elizabeth Gilbert here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Then show up and be ready to serve your entrepreneurial genius… Ole!

(You have to watch the video for that to make sense…) ;=)

What’s the number one thing that constricts your growth in life and business? Some would say lack of money, not enough time, scarce resources, not knowing how to do something or not having a team to do it, not having clients or leads or any number of other things that a business owner needs to make things happen. And the answer is actually none of them – it’s fear.

Fear is the number one thing that blocks you from taking action. I know that because it affects virtually every entrepreneur to some degree at some point in launching, building and growing their business. If you find yourself unable or unwilling to take an action that you know or believe will be beneficial, the root in there somewhere is fear.

Fear is a powerful emotion that underlies, and even dictates, your business choices and actions. It shows up as gremlins, saboteurs, resistance, worry, doubt, fear and a lot of other negative expressions that can deter you from taking action.

But when you understand what’s actually happening with the fear response, and have the tools to overcome it, you begin to harness all the force and energy you’re using to fight the fear and start moving forward with confidence in your business. 

Like the boogeyman, fear gets a whole lot smaller and a lot more manageable when you can call it out in the light of day for what it is – and there are ways that you can actually harness the personal power that fear holds hostage from your consciousness in some very practical ways. It’s about reclaiming your energy for positive momentum.

I asked people to let me know their fears on my FB page and I got some really interesting responses. One person said that the fear looked like giving lots of energy and creative, productive focus and feeling like it wouldn’t pay off and would be going nowhere. Someone else said that it was trying to get your business going but running into other people who block your success by making you feel like a scorned child. Someone else said that it was having family say “I told you that you couldn’t make it”.

In teaching a recent teleclass on Face the Fear and Grow Your Business, I heard a lot of other fears. Fear has a lot of names – the economy, taxes, health insurance, not knowing what to do so doing nothing, balancing family with business needs, not having enough space, feeling lonely in self-employment, risking financial security and facing all the potential consequences of that… there are a lot of fears out there and all of them will slow you down or even prevent you from taking action!

As a business owner, it’s not just your fear but also the fear of your customers because they’re all in the fear of what they’re faced with – it’s probably part of why they hire you (to resolve something that they fear). Your awareness of this will help you to actually not only navigate them for yourself but for your customers.

Here are some different scenarios that you might not recognize as fear until you hear them to see that they are fear in action.

• You might avoid taking unnecessary risks out of the fear of failure or success.
• You might spend more time perfecting your products or services than actually working with clients.
• You spend so much time preparing and perfecting that you forget about working with the clients.
• You might work with any client who has money because you’re in scarcity so you’re in fear so you’ll work with anybody who has money.
• You’ll feel vulnerable to other people’s controls so you’ll respond to other people’s opinions, attitudes, thoughts and actions.
• You’ll make decision based on your fears of what could happen in the future, from the ‘what ifs’ rather than being present with what is right now and making choices from strengths. (In that case, you’ll probably sabotage your progress anyway.)
• You’ll probably focus on material things and how to be right rather than operating and expressing your true power if you’re afraid of negative reaction or challenging response.
• You might be really self-focused instead of thinking of others. If you’re so worried making an income, you might not be thinking about all those leads as people that need you.
• You also might look for validation from other people to feel like you’re on the right path. You’re trying to avoid feeling fear or being wrong.
• You’re looking for that external validation that you’re right in your decisions.
• You’ll focus on the flaws; you’ll find the things that you didn’t do quite right.
• You might even misinterpret what other people say to feed the perception that you’re not quite making it. That justifies that somehow you’re not enough and you have a reason to feel a fear about what you’re doing because you’re looking for validation of the experience that you expect to have.
• You’ll be driven to do your work. The reason for that is you’re actually seeking to fill the deficiency or the void or the fear that’s happening in the rest of your life.
• You won’t trust that you can actually do what you think you can and you may feel abandoned by the Universe when things don’t go as you expect. You’ll take it personally instead of exploring the opportunities in those kinds of moments.
• You’ll give up a lot faster because you don’t know that you can actually handle whatever happens. The obstacle has a lot of power to take the situation down; the fear can take you down.
• You won’t be present with what ‘is’. Instead you’re going to have resentment about what’s already happened or possible be in fear about what could happen. In either case, that’s energy that’s getting siphoned off of the present moment and that takes away your power to reach your greatest potential in that moment.

Any of these scenarios is something that is fairly common for entrepreneurs to experience. The good news is that fear ONLY shows up when you’re in motion! (Otherwise, it has no reason to be activated, right?) ;+)

There’s two ways to consider this transforming the fear, and you get to choose your path – it can be that you just get used to working in the fear so it doesn’t bother you as much (you don’t know that you’re working in fire) or it can be that the fear actually gets managed and minimized or even eliminated.

You can use the fear to focus on being in the ‘now’. Ask yourself: ‘what can I do right now to propel myself forward?’ instead of worrying about what could happen or what’s going to happen tomorrow. If you’re in the present moment and you’re not reacting to something that isn’t right now and you take even one action, you break the hold the fear has on you energetically.

Even more, if you can ‘break state’ with the fear by singing, by having a conversation with a friend (or a stranger), by doing just one thing different… the grip of that particular fear energy gets broken. Where there is light, there can’t be darkness. If you can crack the door energetically to something that is beyond the fear, you’ve already started moving and shifting it. In this case, there is less fear because you have a lot more light – and things are never as scary as they are in the dark! ;=)

I commend you for taking proactive action to acknowledge and overcome one of the most powerful motivators in the human psyche – fear – in order to grow your business. The investment of your time and energy in perusing this material can pay off in ways that you may not be able to imagine now… but you’ll know it when fear comes up and you’re able to use it as generative energy to get more of what you want in and through your business.

Download the Face Your Fear and Grow Your Business 60-page ebook for $27 here: http://www.mycreativecatalyst.com/pages/products.html

Download the 2.5 hour audio from the Face Your Fear Teleclass for $39 here: www.LynnsClasses.com

© 2010 Lynn Scheurell All Rights Reserved

Lynn Scheurell works with entrepreneurs who want to accelerate their personal evolution through focused clarity. Going beyond what they expect, know and find familiar can be chaotic and overwhelming; Lynn’s unique way of facilitating conscious awareness helps people naturally quantum leap their growth for powerful life and business transformation. See www.MyCreativeCatalyst.com f

After doing what I do for more than a decade and working with thousands of entrepreneurs, I’ve come to recognize a few core questions that clients come to me to get answered.

Each of them is big and has potentially huge ramifications when truly considered and become a focal point for significant transformation as a result of taking action.

• Why am I stuck?
• How do I know my purpose?
• What am I supposed to be doing?
• What makes me special / unique?
• How do I know I’m doing the right things?

And, the one that only the most courageous ask…

·         What am I missing?

Answering these questions is vital for an entrepreneur to make meaningful progress toward their business goals.

The ‘new’ model of entrepreneuring is powered by the entrepreneur’s soul and deeper purpose because your business can grow only as fast as you do. 

Your business is a reflection of what’s happening in your internal world. You, as an entrepreneur, get to see the results of your innermost beliefs quickly because your business results show them in a real-world way.

That being said, I need your help.

I’m creating an avant-garde brand-new program designed to support entrepreneurs in knowing their soul’s insights with undeniable clarity.

Please send me the question(s) you ask yourself about your business, who you are in your business, who you are here to be in your business by leaving a comment below or by going to www.JustAskLynn.com.

What challenge is holding you back from shining your light brighter and expressing yourself in business more boldly?  Where is your business limited? Where do you feel constricted in your business?

I really want to know – I’ll be using this information in this new program, which will be rolling out shortly.

Thank you in advance for your question(s)… again, please leave a comment below or go to www.JustAskLynn.com to let me know the business boogeyman that is draining your energy from making progress in your business.

To Your Clear Success In Every Way ~~~

Lynn

Someone recently asked me a question that I thought others might find helpful re: getting out of debt. This is the exchange – hopefully, it gives you or someone you know some good support in facing this same challenge. Please leave me your comments at the bottom as to your situation and ideas about how to handle debt. Thanks.

The Question:

Lynn, I have a problem with lack of focus. I have gotten into so many web based programs and bought so much junk that I have gotten in debt big time. How do I pull out of it?

My Answer:

Hi -

I SO understand! The allure of good marketing has the power to just suck you right in… I’ve done it myself and have shelves full of stuff to prove it! ;+)

My first thought is, naturally, do not buy anything else! Next, go through what you have to see if there’s anything in there that you can leverage to make cash. If not, put it on craiglist or ebay and pass it on…

Re: getting out of debt, there are a few things I would suggest. As with anything I say, please feel into and see if it feels good for you – it it doesn’t, please disregard it. ;+)

Anyway, just like a diet, you’ve got to ‘own’ the number. Know how far you are into debt so you have no surprises – you know what you’re shooting for in terms of a result. Next, negotiate with the lenders so that you can either freeze the interest or work out a reasonable payment plan.

Then follow the energy of your money opportunities – create a mindmap about how to generate cash. Take a piece of paper and write the number you need to create in March – add $1000 to it for good measure. From there, draw out, like wheel spokes, all the ways that can come to you… commissions, garage sale, affiliate marketing, consulting, clients, etc. Brainstorm on what you can do to create that money. Then use that as a roadmap to prioritize what you focus on next.

Please bear in mind that I am a Midwestern girl at heart, so the solution has to be practical. AND, I am a spiritual teacher so I believe in invoking in all the energy that’s required to help make that happen. One of my clients did the above mindmap, set her intention to increase from 2 students/wk to 10 paying students/wk. Within 2 wks, she was at 8 students/wk – and that was after going for 6 months without an increase! It works…

I invite you to join me on my mailing list as I send out resources and information often. Also, at the risk of tempting you with something else, I am teaching a class on how to face your fears. I figure there are no coincidences here… ;+)

If you’d like to check that teleclass out, it’s $39 and you can see it www.LynnsClasses.com. It’s both a lecture AND a separate Q and A call, so that’s 2+ hours in there.

Meanwhile, I send you good energy to power up some positive momentum! Please keep me posted… I know you can get it handled. :+)

With good vibes ~~~

Lynn

Lynn Scheurell
Creative Catalyst

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my first answer was always the same – ‘to help people’. And that answer revealed my true gifts in a profound, sweet way… it’s also that answer that has held back my business growth over the years.

Now I’m able to articulate my natural wisdom points – I’m a teacher, a healer, an intuitive and business visionary. So, ‘helping people’ is really how I’m wired from the inside out – these are talents that I’ve never really had to ‘learn’ because I just naturally know and express them.

However, I struggled for years beginning in corporate America and then as an entrepreneur. And people couldn’t really help me either – they just knew they felt better and that things flowed better when I was around. Unfortunately, as a business owner, not being able to pinpoint what you do is the entrepreneurial black hole.

I spent literally decades trying to sort my way through how ‘helping people’ was not a niche market. ‘People’ don’t know who ‘people’ are, right? After years of frustration and many different businesses, my current business is tailored to exactly the people who can most use my natural wisdom AND everything I’ve learned along the way.

The bottom line: I teach renaissance / spiritual / creative / conscious entrepreneurs how to find and translate their soul’s wisdom into a viable business. I want to help every entrepreneur offering a natural talent, message and/or gift to express it through their business because, for me, that’s our highest calling. One’s life purpose made manifest through service, creating and generating value for self and others, is the whole point of being here.

So, I’m still ‘helping people’… and now they know who they are and I am living my purpose when we make that connection. ;=)

What did you say when people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? In what ways has that come true? How has that guided you in your life? Please leave me a comment – I’d love to hear your story.

Sir Ken Robinson (who I frankly had never heard of) gave a TED Talk about creativity. As much as I like to get new perspectives on, well, everything, I wasn’t going to watch this 20-minute video because it was described to focus on education and creativity. And then something told me to watch it. It was eye-opening.

This speaker described the dilemma of educational systems today as having to educate for something that we don’t know is coming, that we are innovating for what we can’t yet see and that current systems actually stigmatize making mistakes. By making mistakes, and being criticized, judged and minimized for them, we learn to follow an intellectual system of perfection.

We are educated above the neck and to the left side (linear brain). He calls it academic inflation, as education systems focus on cultivating for university admittance (the equivalent of ‘strip-mining the mind’). The result all this is that some of the most intelligent, creative, innovative people around don’t know how amazing they are because they fear making a mistake and being wrong.

This wisdom is foundationally relevant to any entrepreneur because it is in risking who we are that we create and generate value. Our imagination and creativity is the key to solving problems that we don’t even know exist yet. Our original ideas that have value are the very core of creativity, in Sir Ken’s description. He says ‘take a chance – don’t be frightened of being wrong!”, degrees (credentials) really aren’t worth anything and that it is the richness of human capacity that matters. I couldn’t agree more.

You can always change your mind, but the greatest mistake is not taking action on expressing who you are with the world. The greatest tragedy is feeling shame for being divorce, dynamic and distinct as a person (the speaker’s definition of intelligence), not valuing those very qualities for the power held within them.

Here are three keys that entrepreneurs can use from this video.

1.       Be prepared to be wrong so you can innovate beyond what’s known.

2.       Cast aside rigid structures that limit and make bland your natural gifts.

3.       Express the core of who you are in what you do.

To see this video yourself, go to: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Be prepared to be inspired.

And please let me know how your world is different as a result of that inspiration by leaving a comment below – thanks. ;+)