How To Get Unstuck

We are at the end of the first “J” month.  In direct sales, June is one of those dreaded months where business can slow down.  Does it really slow down or do we loose our focus?  For those with kids, the summer means juggling activities and keeping them busy.  For others, it means nice weather so trips to the beach, barbecues and just enjoying time with friends and family.

Did you know, when you allow a summer slowdown, you are really forecasting what your business will be like in September and October?  What you do now will effect your business in 90 days…….It will be like restarting your business all over again when everyone else is gearing up for the busiest shopping time of the year.

Here is a simple three step process from one of my favorite business coaches, Julie Anne Jones. to get you unstuck.

Step 1:  Focus On What You Want

I know I am not alone because as  human beings, we naturally focus on what’s wrong and try to fix it, when things aren’t going our way.  The key to changing your mindset is you need to look for a solution instead of focusing on the problem itself.  I have talked about positive affirmations before – bringing the “good” into your universe, right?  One of the easiest ways to do it is to use these to get your mindset working for you.

Grab a sheet of paper or a journal and answer this question:

If the perfect outcome to your problem magically appeared, what would happen (be as specific as you can. Add details and remember to stay focused on what you want to happen, not on what you don’t want to happen). Doing a thorough job during this step will make the next two easier.

Step 2: Activate Gratitude

When I am feeling down or on the “pity pot”, I take a gratitude walk.  Sometimes it is outside enjoying nature but when it isn’t possible, I start writing a list.  Gratitude is the quickest, and easiest way to change your mindset from the negative to the positive. It’s hard to stay stuck when you’re focused on everything in your life you’re grateful for.

This step is fun…create a “Gratitude List” of at least five things you’re grateful for RIGHT NOW.  It can be as simple as “getting up this morning”, or having a roof over your head.  Keep writing for about 10 minutes.   See what happens when you focus on what you’re grateful for and how quickly things turn around for you.

Step 3:  Create Affirmations

Affirmations are positive “I am” statements about the outcomes you want.  You state them in the present as if they have already happened. Here are some examples:

• I am attracting the perfect clients in my business and love helping them succeed.
• I am making enough money to pay my bills
• I am booking parties and love helping people get FREE products
• I am at my goal weight and am enjoying eating healthy

Can’t wait to hear how your summer turns out…. Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Consistency is the Key to Success

The most often question I hear from members of my team revolves around maintaining and growing their business.  What do you do when you have exhausted your family and friends?  Where do you turn, how do keep your business?

Your business is fun and flexible but the work is NOT optional.  A reminder I keep on my wall from Carrie Wilkerson.  The key for me has been consistency.  Did it happen over night? NO!  But after consistently working my business intentionally a little bit every day, I see the results.  Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t still be doing direct sales for the last 7 years with the same company if I wasn’t making money, right?  Gotta pay the bills!

Here are 5 things you can do to be more consistent in your business and help you to  reach your goals.

1. Break your goals down into activities.

I can’t always see the BIG picture but I can focus on the baby steps.  I know, crazy, right?  Your daily activities are like gasoline for your car which gets you to your destination.  If you have a goal to reach $1000 in income every month, you need to figure out how many new contacts it will take each month, how many parties you need to hold, how many team members you need to recruit and what your team sales need to be. Then you can break it down to the activities you need to do on a regular basis to find those new customers, book those parties, recruit those team members and then help them build their business.  I know it sounds overwhelming BUT it is possible!  WRITE down your goal.  Now make a list of all of the things you could do (if FEAR was not a factor) to make it happen.  Those activities could include marketing, lead generation, events, follow ups, opportunity Facebook Live, or 1 on 1 team coaching.  You will be surprised what happens if you step out of your comfort zone just a little bit to complete some of these activities.

2. Focus on creating new habits.

I am all about lists.  I like to see things highlighted in my planner which means they are done or crossed off my list.  I even have a daily habits schedule because on those “rough days”, I could forget even the things I have done every day for months.  So let’s get busy.  It’s actually much easier to create new habits than to break old ones.  When we re-train our brain, it will become easier to complete the new tasks, routines and goals we have. What would an ideal day look like in your life and in your business?  What are you waiting for?   Begin working NOW to follow the new routine each day. Choose 1 area to focus on changing to allow your brain to adjust to the new way of thinking and being.  Remember the tortoise and the hare?  Slow and steady wins the race.

3. Evaluate your activities each day, week and month.

Do you review your activities?  Do you actually write down your successes, challenges and big ideas for the month?  The only real way to make sure you are making progress and staying on course is by evaluating what you do on a regular basis.  Create a daily or weekly task list.  Create theme days you use to keep yourself on track – Motivation Monday, Team Tuesday, etc. Then look at it at least once a week to see what is going well, what isn’t going so well and where you need to improve or adjust.  I review my week on either Saturday morning or Sunday evenings as I prep for the upcoming week.  A weekly check allows me to tweak my focus so I can reach my goals faster.

4. Seek Accountability.

I don’t know about you but I need to be accountable to someone.  Change can be tough but when I add in an accountability measure, it gives me an incentive, and encouragement to do the work.   Some share their goals with their family to get them on board. Some find a buddy in or out of their direct sales company to connect with on a regular basis. What works best for you?  Create a vision board to help you keep focused.  This can be done with magazine cut-outs or hand drawn.  I am part of an incredible Facebook Group called League of Audacious Women run by the AMAZING Desiree Wolfe which helps me stay accountable on a daily basis. Join a monthly group coaching or training program which provides support and accountability. Be willing to hold yourself responsible and learn from others who are further along the path than you are.

5. Celebrate your progress.

Do you wait to celebrate until you reach the final goal OR do you celebrate your accomplishments along the way?  The success is in the journey and not always the destination.  Your goal is a target for you to focus on to keep you moving forward BUT life happens. We get derailed or make mistakes.  Sometimes it takes us longer to reach our goal than we hoped for or maybe we never reach it BUT we need to continue to celebrate our progress.  Practice self-love and be our own biggest cheerleaders. Focus on progress not perfection.

Who is ready to get consistent?  What small step will you make to change the direction of your business and your life?

Have a ThirtyOne-deful day!

Do You Want To Be Successful?

Today is all about helping you to reach the goals (or resolutions) you set on January 1st.  To become successful, may not mean adding more things to your life, it may mean you need to give some things.

1. Give Up On The Unhealthy Lifestyle

If you want to achieve anything in life, everything starts here. First, you should take care of your health, and there are only three things you need to keep in mind:

1. Quality Sleep
2. Healthy Diet
3. Physical Activity

Small steps, but you will thank yourself one day.

2. Give Up On Playing Small

If you never try and take chances or allow your dreams to become realities, you will never unleash your true potential.  As a result, the world will never benefit from what you could have achieved.

3. Give Up Your Excuses

Successful people are responsible for their life, no matter their starting point, weaknesses, and past failures.  Realizing you are responsible for what happens in your life is both frightening and exciting.  The truth is excuses limit and prevent us from growing personally and professionally.

4. Give Up The Fixed Mindset

Change your mindset – change your life!  Successful people invest a lot of of time on a daily basis to develop a growth mindset, acquire new knowledge, learn new skills and change their perception so it can benefit their lives.

5. Give Up Believing In The “Magic Wand.”

There is no such thing as “overnight success”.  Successful people make small consistent improvements every day which compound over time and give their desired results.  Plan for the future, but focus on the day ahead of you, and improve just 1% every day.

6. Give Up Your Perfectionism

Nothing will ever be perfect, no matter how much you try.  Fear of failure (or even fear of success) prevents you from taking action and putting your creation out there in the world. But a lot of opportunities will be lost if you wait for things to be right.

7. Give Up Multi-tasking

Successful people know this.  They choose one thing and beat it into submission. No matter what it is — a business idea, a conversation, or a workout.  Being fully present and committed to one task is indispensable.

8. Give Up On Saying YES To Things If They Don’t Support Your Goals

Successful people know in order to accomplish their goals, they will have to say NO to certain tasks, activities, and demands from their friends, family, and colleagues.  It is a short-term sacrifice, but when you achieve your goals, it will all be worth it.

9. Give Up The Toxic People

The people you spend the most time with add up to who you become.  If you spend time with those who refuse to take responsibility for their life, always find excuses and blame others for the situation they are in, your average will go down, and with it your opportunity to succeed.

However, if you spend time with people who are trying to increase their standard of living, and grow personally and professionally, your average will go up, and you will become more successful.

Take a look at around you, and see if you need to make any changes.

10. Give Up Your Need To Be Liked

Think of yourself as a market niche.  There will be a lot of people who like the niche, and there will be individuals who don’t. And no matter what you do, you won’t be able to make everyone like you.  This is completely natural, and there’s no need to justify yourself.  The only thing you can do is to remain authentic, improve and provide value every day, and know that the growing number of “haters” means that you are doing remarkable things.

I’m not going to say it will be easy… some of these I struggle with every day BUT I am determined to reach my goals and MY definition success in 2018.  What about you?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

What Does Your Image Say About You?

A new Thirty One year starts today!  Every year (actually twice a year) I look back on my goals and evaluate what went right or what went wrong.  I don’t focus on the negative BUT I do acknowledge it so I know the changes I want to make in the new year.

Over the last year, there have been some noticeable changes personally and professionally in my business.  I have been saying and visualizing daily mantras to combat those nasty inner gremlins – the result, a more positive attitude.  The more positive attitude has rippled into a stronger marriage and a stronger business.  

I am learning to be ME!  At age 60, you would think I have this down pat but alas I don’t!  I used to practice my 30-second commercial so much, it felt canned and never really natural.  So, what did I do?  Changed it from a practiced commercial to “I help busy woman with simple organizing solutions so they can enjoy quality time with family and friends”.  I am a walking billboard with Thirty One products so it is easy to then share how they help me to stay organized.

But my image is more than my 30-second commercial… it is also about how others perceive me.  I’m a jeans girl.  When I was working in the non-profit world as a Social Worker and then as a Chief Operating Officer, I wore jeans with comfortable shoes (no sneakers) and a nice shirt.   As a direct sales consultant, jeans and a company tee shirt have been my attire for as long as I can remember.  But I will admit, getting older and closer to goal weight, I am changing things up a bit.  Nothing costly or dramatic just enough to let my sparkle shine through.

Do you remember the show “PanAm Girls” (I said I was OLD!).  These flight attendants were well groomed ALL the time, top notch, first class all the way.  Their hair, makeup, jewelry and clothes had everyone wanting to be just like them.  

What do you think of when you think of First Class?  

In direct sales, we are “on” all of the time.  Do people think you are well put together or a hot mess?  People pass judgement on us without us even opening our mouth.  Our clothes have a language all its own.  I’m not sure if mine don’t show I’m a hot mess more often then I want.  

Here are some of the tips to help you sparkle:

1. Always where solid colors to a party or event.  You certainly don’t want to clash with your products.  As a Thirty One consultant, we have lots of prints to show so this makes sense.
2. Be genuine, gracious and acknowledge others.  To me, this is a no-brainer for we Celebrate, Encourage and Reward our customers and hostesses.  This also is a great way to use Dana Wilde’s 10-second rule.
3. Little details make up the big picture.  Pay attention to the little details your customers or potential customers share with you.  When I am at an event or party, I even make notes on the order forms so I can remember something about the customer.  
4. Dress to showcase the best you.  Leave the tennis shoes at home.  Stay away from clothes which are too tight or too big.  Instead of jeans and a tee why not khakis and a tee. I have started wearing more of our jewelry and makeup to parties.
5. If you saw you, what would you think?  Are you an all together girl?  Or are you a hot mess? When I think of an all-together person, there is a women at Weight Watchers who always looks FIRST CLASS.  Color coordinated, hair done, makeup, jewelry, etc. and she is just weighing in.  I always tell her I aspire to be like her.
6. You are what you wear even BEFORE you have a chance to give your 30-second commercial.

I have also found my angels help me to stand out from the crowd.  A handwritten thank you with an angel goes a long way to someone remembering who I am.  The “ThirtyOne Angel Lady” as I am known by some fellow vendors.

What have you got to lose, right?  Who knows,you may recruit more and sell more so isn’t it worth a try?  Time for a haircut or at least to clean up my current hairstyle.  How about you – do you portray a first class image or a hot mess?

 

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day.

Choose Your Own Direction

WOOOHOO!  Do you know what day it is?

Yes, it is still HUMP day even though it is a short week for most people since Monday was a holiday.

For those who read my blog often, you know I am a HUGE fan of Carrie Wilkerson and Lysa TerKeurst.  Put the two together and talk about motivation….

Lysa TerKeurst shared this quote recently:

‘You steer where you stare.

Okay, we all know this in our head, right?  Think about when you were learning to drive a car.  I was great for looking at things all around me and as a result, the car went in the same direction.  I was also learning to drive a clutch at the same time.  The two definitely did not mix well.  It made for may heated driving lessons with dad.  We all had to learn to focus on where we wanted to go.  I used to do the same thing when I was walking.  Looking at something on the right and the next thing I knew, I was walking towards it, cutting off anyone who was next to me or in my path.

It is the same, If you are focused on envy or fear or scarcity or lack… it will be near impossible not to VEER towards those.  The Universe will bring you want you are focused on.  Positive brings positive.  Negative brings negative.

When I started this new “eating plan” which was very limited to help control my candida, I focused on the things I couldn’t eat.  Everywhere I turned, there was fruit, seafood, dairy and the dreaded gluten.  With the help of my Weight Watchers leader, Michelle, I started looking at food differently.  I focused on the things I could eat.  As a result, I went from feeling deprived and sad about what I couldn’t have to enjoying what I could have.  The result, the other stuff went away (okay, maybe not but I wasn’t looking for them now).

Apply this to just about anything in your life.  I have positive mantras I read every morning.  Some mornings, I don’t want to be bothered and the result is I lose focus.  When we focus on positivity, abundance, tiny successes, encouraging scripture, and affirmations, we do well!  When we focus on negativity, the end result is a “shitty” day, right?

We need to face FRONT!  Thirty-One Gifts founder Cindy Monroe says… ‘I spend more time looking through the windshield than the rearview mirror. Why would I focus there? I’m not going that way!’

Don’t focus on what you’re leaving behind…focus on what you’re running towards!

Dana Wilde, Train Your Brain, shares positive mantras every day so we can adjust our brain and our vision. It takes time but it can happen.  Steer the boat (or your thoughts) in the direction you want to go and it will happen.  Maybe not overnight but it will happen.

I have changed my focus in my weightless journey and the pounds are slowing coming off.  Inching my way back to goal.  In my business, I no longer talk about “no one wants to party”, I am thinking positively and taking steps to make it happen.  The truth is, I can still have a successful business without parties (I proved it in April when I had no parties but hit my personal goal), it is just easier when you have them.

I dare you to adjust your brain, your vision and your focus today!  Share with us the change you are going to make then let us know how it changed your day so we can celebrate with you.  OR share a struggle so we can help you overcome it.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!