Success

The Danger of Some Coaches…

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Here’s a coaching, facilitation, teaching (and marketing) tool that I live by:

It is vitally important to reveal yourself, your imperfections, your not-so-great outcomes, and your not-so-happy qualities to your clients, students and community.

The transformational industry is FULL of gurus who seem picture perfect. They have “perfect” businesses; they apparently learn their lessons very quickly; they apparently don’t make mistakes; they apparently don’t really have sh*t happen to them

This is damaging to their communities – and specifically to their clients.

Because as a coach or practitioner, if you don’t consciously reveal your imperfections to your clients….they can make the mistake of believing that things happen perfectly for you.

And that essentially means that you become, in my opinion, a very, very dangerous role model.

Because no one is perfect, no one’s business is perfect, no one’s health is perfect, etc.

But your clients believe that if you – their coach or leader – don’t have frustrations, don’t have obstacles, don’t have hardships, that they should be able to attain it too.

And that’s a setup for failure, for frustration, and for unhappiness.

When I am with my clients and students, I never hesitate to share about my not-so-great moments, my not-so-great launches, my not-so-pretty feelings (yes, I get jealous and negative sometimes!), and my sweaty armpits (always happens when I facilitate!).

Of course, I share only when appropriate and only as much as is necessary to make the point: that I am human, just like my client is human, and we are bound to have imperfect lives and businesses. And this is as it should be.

When we are coaching or facilitating, we need to remember that when we show that we struggle with some things, that things don’t always go according to our plans….we are giving permission to our clients to not be so hard on themselves, to not be so self-judgmental, and to not think something is very wrong with them because they haven’t achieved enough.

This is the ONLY way real growth can happen. And this is the ONLY way real movement towards goals can happen.

And quite honestly, this is the only way real self-love can deepen (& I believe that at the core of ANY coach’s or practioner’s job, this is one of the most sacred).

When I train practitioners in Sacred Depths Coach Training, we spend a full module just on how to support clients through the Myth of Perfection. In addition to the inner work tools I share with my coaches on this, I also always share this important principle:

Remember that when you are someone’s coach, teacher or facilitator…you also bear the responsibility of being their role model. And being a role model doesn’t mean showing up as an image of perfection.

Leading your clients when your personal life takes over

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Joanna Lindenbaum and children

A few years ago, while I was leading a group call with nearly 30 women, my parents telephoned me on both my home phone and my cell phone 4 times within about 2 minutes.

I could feel my heart start beating faster as I was coaching. My mother has had MS for 30 years, and there have been many emergencies, hospital visits, and even life-support situations over the years.

A version of me 3 years ago would have tried to ignore her calls until I was done teaching — yet be scared & un-present to my teaching the entire time — because I wouldn’t want to come off as unprofessional.

An even older version of myself would have freaked out completely, told the folks on the call that I needed to reschedule, and then go on to deal with whatever was happening.

Last week, instead, at an appropriate pause in between spotlight coaching moments, I let the women on the call know that my parents had called 4 times and that I was concerned enough to feel I should call back, but that it would only take a moment. I asked everyone on the call to hold for just a minute and quickly called my mom. There was a slight emergency situation, but nothing very serious. I was able to get off the phone in under 90 seconds, return to my clients with full presence, and then take care of the situation at an appropriate time.

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The Struggle About What To Charge

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In this moment, I can’t actually think of any client I’ve ever worked with that hasn’t at some point wondered or (most likely) agonized over what to charge. And I confess, I certainly have grappled with this many times in the past as well.

The question about where to set your rates brings up a whole slew of internal questions and judgments:

How valuable is my work?

What will people think when they hear my rates?

What are other people in my industry charging?

Will anyone buy from me at all?

Am I undercharging?

Am I overcharging?

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Leading your clients when your personal life takes over

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Joanna and her kids

Last week, while I was leading a group call with nearly 30 women, my parents telephoned me on both my home phone and my cellphone 4 times within about 2 minutes.

I could feel my heart start beating faster as I was coaching. My mother has had MS for 30 years, and there have been many emergencies, hospital visits, and even life-support situations over the years.

A version of me 3 years ago would have tried to ignore her calls until I was done teaching — yet be scared & un-present to my teaching the entire time — because I wouldn’t want to come off as unprofessional.

An even older version of myself would have freaked out completely, told the folks on the call that I needed to reschedule, and then go on to deal with whatever was happening.

Last week, instead, at an appropriate pause in between spotlight coaching moments, I let the women on the call know that my parents had called 4 times and that I was concerned enough to feel I should call back, but that it would only take a moment. I asked everyone on the call to hold for just a minute and quickly called my mom. There was a slight emergency situation, but nothing very serious. I was able to get off the phone in under 90 seconds, return to my clients with full presence, and then take care of the situation at an appropriate time.

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Why I work on some evenings these days…

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Last week was Autumn Equinox which — among other things — is all about the energy of Balance.

During the time of the Equinox, the daytime hours are exactly as long as the night-time hours. The Earth is in a beautiful moment of balance between light and dark, Winter and Summer, inner and outer energy.

So this is a wonderful moment to reflect upon how you are creating balance in your life and in your business.

Balance is one of the most important elements of any successful and happy business. And when things aren’t in balance, you feel off, resentful and most likely are not creating what you want. For example:

–Working so much that you don’t have enough time for rest, self-care, family or the other priorities in your life
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Some vulnerability about my business…

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I recently posted this on Facebook, and it received such an overwhelming response that it felt important to share with you as well. It’s a short article, but a VERY important one!

The last 15 months with a baby and a 1st grader and a business and a sick mom who lives far away and…well, just life and all that comes with it…has been really hard at times.

In terms of business, there has been massive, massive growth on some levels, and on other levels I’m moving way slower than ever before. I thought my re-brand would be done and ready to go by last January. Ha! I’m hoping now for end of September. I thought my Sacred Archetype Assessment would have been ready by last December. I released it in July. I had plans for writing my book and creating some really, really huge marketing moments this last Spring. That hasn’t fully happened yet.

I’m sharing this for a couple of reasons:

1) I could have easily beaten myself up through all of this, judged myself for being lazy or too slow, compared myself to others, etc. But instead I chose to honor my pace, to honor that my business is NOT my first priority in life, to honor that I choose to make time for my children FIRST, and for my business to fit in with my life and not the other way around.

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One Of My Favorite “Growth” Tools

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7-3-14journalsI’ve kept a journal since I’ve been 6 years old.

My first journal had a cover with a red and white floral design, and it had a lock and key. The pages were lined, and I wrote (with lots of miss-spellings and really bad grammar) about my first day of school, the girls I was friends with, the bully in the class, my parents’ refusal to give me an allowance, my beloved grandfather who passed away that year and how I felt about all these things.

I remember so clearly the absolute delight I took in sharing my secrets and myself in those pages. The book – which was small in size – felt to me like a sacred and magical tool. My 6-year-old self believed it had the power to make my life better.

I still have that journal, and the 45+ others that I’ve filled since then.

The writing in those journals has evolved from small words written in print letters to more sophisticated thoughts written in cursive or sometimes drawn with pastels.

The stories told in those journals have seen me get my period for the first time, fall in love with (& get heartbroken by) my first crush, realize my parents weren’t perfect, get rejected from my college of choice, graduate college and grad school, deal with my mother’s illness, travel across the world, get and recover from Bell’s palsy, quit my job to start my own business, get married, birth two children, and everything in between.

And my 38-year-old-self can say without a doubt that journaling does have the power to make your life better, richer, and happier.

Throughout the years, my journal has helped me:

  • connect deeply to myself and my desires
  • tap into my inner wisdom and uncover my intuition
  • create clarity out of confusion
  • express my anger in safe and really productive ways
  • release pain and frustration and disappointment
  • connect to Spirit
  • make better decisions
  • cultivate hope
  • cultivate self-love and confidence
  • and so much more

Over the last decade, I have also used my journal to support me in every single aspect of my business, from my confidence level & ability to value myself, to my marketing and operations plans.

Journaling has helped me grow into a successful, soul-centered entrepreneur who (for the most part) knows herself and her desires really well, has the insight and clarity to make good decisions about offerings, marketing, rates, team and systems, and has the courage to take risks and make out-the-box moves.

Here are some of my "best practices" for successful journaling:

  • Be consistent: There are periods of time when I journal every day, and then periods of time where I journal only every other week. Of course, when I am more consistent, I receive so much more from my journaling practice – each journal entry builds on the next and deep, deep insights are revealed over time. But even when I just check in for a few minutes, writing just for me has the power to transform my mood, provide me with hope and trust, and give me insight on next steps.
  • Write fast: I have found that the faster I write when I journal, the easier it is to get past all of my mental gobbelty-gook and obstacles and go to a much deeper place inside of myself that holds the real wisdom. There’s something about writing as fast as you can that eliminates your filter and gets you to your truth.
  • Write for yourself: In order to really allow your truth and wisdom to flow, it’s vital that you journal for yourself only, and not with the thought that someone else may read your writing. When you write with the knowledge that it’s just for you, you have permission to express any emotion that wants to be expressed, any idea no matter how silly it seems, and any big goal without being judged.
  • Mix it Up: I personally get a little bored with writing from the same voice in every journal entry. I get stale that way. What has really helped me continually find deeper and deeper places inside myself is to mix it up – write from different points of view, sometimes draw, sometimes write in silence and other times with music playing, write letters, make charts, make lists, etc.

Not only have I used my journal for over three decades for my own self-growth and learning, but I regularly give my clients and students journaling assignments to support them and their businesses. It has been utterly amazing to watch my clients grow on the inner and outer levels through their self-discovery and through their journaling.

And this is what I want for you, too.

That is why I am thrilled beyond thrilled to share with you the Deep Insights Business Journaling Intensive:

Next week (starting Monday, July 7th), I will send you a journaling assignment each morning. For five days in a row, you’ll receive a specially-designed journaling assignment from me to help you gain clarity, wisdom and confidence about your business. Each assignment can take as long as a half-hour, but in order for it to be effective, you don’t need to write for more than 5 minutes. You are going to get so much from your writing, and then even more by participating in our Facebook group where I’ll be doing additional teaching and coaching each day.

You don’t need to register for the Journaling Intensive – as a member of the Soulful Coaching community, you’ll get it in your inbox automatically each day-my gift to you.

What you should do right away is join our Journaling Intensive Facebook group so that you can introduce yourself to the other women in the community and get ready to share your insights from the journaling assignments. I’ll be on the Facebook group a LOT next week to share my own insights with you and coach you! Here’s the link to join:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/801350099917050/

Can’t wait!

Your Time = Your Business

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Running a business is full of responsibilities and obligations, and it can be easy to lose control of how you spend your time. But how you spend your time determines the success of your business.

If you feel like you aren’t doing what you want to be doing in your business or soul-centered project, chances are good that your priorities do not match how you spend your actual time.

And, if you’re not spending your business time according to your priorities, chances are good that you’ll feel stressed, dissatisfied, tired or disappointed with your work life.

For example, if you highly value developing your network of colleagues, but instead focus a lot of energy and time on operational details, then you are likely feeling harried and disconnected from like-minded practitioners. Or, if your biggest desire is to grow your business, but your time is actually spent running errands and doing paperwork, unfortunately, your life won’t magically open up more time for marketing your business.

You need to prioritize what’s most important & then set the intention to make it happen.

Align your business with your priorities and your values:

1) Clarify What’s Important

Make a list of everything in your business or project that is important to you. This can include expanding your prospect list, developing new programs or offerings, marketing, cultivating referrals, etc. Get specific with this list. For example, instead of simply listing "networking”, perhaps list particular individuals or groups of colleagues who are important to your business.

2) Rank What’s Important

Order your list in number of importance to you. This is now your priority list.

3) Identify Your Top Three

Now, take a look at the top three items on your list. Star them. Ask yourself: Are these really my top priorities in life, or are some of these items "shoulds" or "obligations"? If there are any shoulds or obligations, re-prioritize so that your top three really connect with you on a heart/soul level. Some questions to ask yourself are:

  • Am I excited about this item?
  • How do I feel when I devote time to this item?
  • Is there anything I would rather do than this item?

4) How Do You Really Spend Your Time?

Is the majority of your actual time devoted to the top three things on your list? If yes, wonderful! If not – what are you spending your time doing instead? If that’s not a top priority item: why are you spending your time on it? Do you actually need to be spending time on it, or is it simply a distraction? Can it be delegated?

This 4-step process will help you get clarity on how you want to spend your time versus how you actually do spend your time. It will also help you uncover what’s important and why you spend time on things that are not priorities.

Once you do that, then you can move on to the next level, which is to create a detailed plan of how those priorities will play out week by week in your schedule.

Time To Share…

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I’m gearing up for another trip to NY in a week, but before that I have been enjoying the incredible Spring weather & energy, and one of my favorite forms of art: theatre. Jon and I, along with some friends, saw a wonderful production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? last weekend. Wow, what an intense 3 hours.

You’ll notice that in today’s newsletter, I’m recommending events from THREE amazing women – it’s rare that I’ll highlight 3 in one newsletter, but each of these women and each of these events are so fantastic that I didn’t want you to miss out.

I love to promote women, businesses, and events that I find valuable and think the Soulful Coaching community (YOU!) would love. It’s one of the things that gives me great pleasure, and I’m thrilled that I’m able to share other women’s tools of movement, growth, and healing to so many.

Speaking of growth tools – check out last week’s article – all about taking your website to the next level!

With love,
Joanna

How To Create An Effective, Soul-Centered Website

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When you take a look around the web today, it can seem like everyone has a gorgeous, amazing website. It can make you feel very pressured to create a fabulous website for your business or project too!

You never want to act out of pressure.

However, if you sense that it’s time to create a new website, or improve your existing one…that’s great, because a well-created website can make a world of difference in your inflow of prospects.

But where to begin?

What do you include in a website? What’s important and what’s unnecessary? What about graphics? Or video? Or downloads? There are so many variables to consider, it can get overwhelming fast!

If you are just terrified of or feel unprepared to have a website, rest easy: you don’t need a perfect, fancy website in order to be successful in your soul-centered project. If you’re ready to create your website or to uplevel the one you already have, great! Let me walk you through the process step by step.

Elements of a Soul-Centered Website

Before you get started, my number one recommendation to you is this: keep it simple.

Once you start to make your website complex, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed. When you get overwhelmed, more often than not, you just stop working on it or you beat yourself up. This is not helpful! Remember, entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be plenty of time to add and make things fancier. Here are the real essentials:

HOME PAGE

This is the main page that people will land on when they visit your website. The best use of a home page is to identify who your ideal clients are, to address your clients’ needs and visions of success, and to let them know how you’re the bridge to that success.

  • Be accessible. Make sure your contact information is on every page, starting with the home page. The information you supply will vary depending on what’s appropriate for your particular business, but this may include company name, logo, phone number, email address, social media accounts, etc. This may seem obvious, but this information gets overlooked so many times!
  • Identify your prospect. Have some copy that lets the prospects know that they should be reading it because they are exactly the type of person whom you serve best. You can ask: "Are you a good match for my programs?" You might list qualities of your ideal clients. Describe who they are by identifying their needs and their visions. If you are a yoga teacher, your clients’ needs might be to find tranquility within themselves, to become more fit, or to try yoga for the first time. Their vision might be that they can finally perform a difficult pose, meditate successfully, etc. Speak to their dreams in this section.
  • Reveal the benefits of your service or your product, etc. I like to use bullet points here, just listing all the ways your prospect will benefit from your offerings. You can briefly outline your Brilliance-Based System – lay out, step by step, your system for bringing your clients from where they are right now (their "needs”) to where they’d like to be in the future (their "visions”).
  • Let them know what to do next. You need to always have a clear call to action that invites folks to the next step with you. This might be a call to have people sign up for a complimentary call, or to sign up for a newsletter, or to download an ebook. List the benefits of this and clear instructions on how to do it.
  • Your photo + your presence. A clean, clear photo of you, if appropriate, helps your prospects make a personal connection with you.

OFFERING PAGE

  • This can be called "services," "work with me," etc. You can list in detail what you do. If your offerings are services, be clear about what’s included in each program, and more importantly – what the BENEFIT is. If you include your pricing – and you don’t have to — be clear about it. Make sure nothing is confusing; this is your opportunity to paint a bright and vibrant picture. If your offering is a product, you may want to also use images and photos in this section.
  • Again, let people know what to do. At the bottom of this page, include a very clear call to action. For example: "If you would like to learn how these services can move you from A (your readers’ experiences of need) to B (their vision of success) then do Z (sign up, call, email, etc.)."

BIOGRAPHY PAGE

  • This can be called "About Me," "Bio," "About [your name]," or another appropriate title that’s aligned for your business or project. This is where you get to describe, in a personal way, who you are. You can include your qualifications, experiences, education, and your story about your business. Your biography should be personal, because it’s an opportunity to make a real connection and create a relationship with your readers.
  • Include a good headshot of yourself to continue the feeling of connection with your readers. Make sure the photo is adequately lit so that you are easy to see.
  • If the work you do isn’t appropriate for there to be a photo of you, think about other ways to integrate images into your website. You want images to break up chunks of text. The eye needs to rest from all the text, and also the images will help create atmosphere and energy for your site.

Important Additional Elements

  • Make sure there is a way for people to enter their name and email address (and maybe even their phone number) on every single page of your site. You must have a way of capturing the contact information of people who visit your site and are interested in you.
  • That registration box needs to be somewhere in the upper right hand corner of every single page. This is because research has shown that when people look at websites their eyes will naturally fall pretty quickly to the upper right hand corner. Getting peoples’ contact information is even more important than getting them to read your entire website, because it means you can contact them and let them know about your offerings in a more personal way.
  • Create a free offering to use as an incentive for people to sign up and give you their contact information. This could be an e-book, a report, an audio, a guided meditation, a video, etc.
  • Testimonials are a great way to help prospects feel comfortable with and trust your offerings. You can devote a page on your website to them or sprinkle them around the other pages.