Secret to Business Success

I’m a home-body.  I love to be home.  Not that I don’t leave my house, I do.  I travel and go places; but ultimately I really just like being home.  It’s my comfort zone.

A comfort zone is a place that feels good, is safe and protected; nothing wrong with that except that it’s the place where things do not happen.  

As a business owner it is important for you to stretch outside your comfort zone.  We also call the comfort zone the safety zone, and you know what happens in a safety zone – nothing!

True, no one gets hurt in the comfort zone, but no one grows and expands and experiences really amazing things either.  Outside the safety zone is where you have the possibility and opportunity to learn, have fun and live.  Which do you want to be in?

We tend to hold ourselves back for many reasons; fear of the unknown, feeling stupid, losing money, losing face or whatever.  However, I’m here to tell you not only from my own experience personally but also from my clients’ as well, thatwhen we do step outside our comfort and safety zone, the greatest success, accomplishment and feelings materialize and they are SO amazing. 

Here are several suggestions for you to step outside of your comfort zone:

  • Set up a one-on-one meeting close to your office.  Call up someone you would like to know more about (them personally as well as their business) and schedule to meet for coffee or a light lunch.
  • Attend networking events and meet two new people to connect with.  When you have the goal of meeting just two people, it makes it easier for you to get out there.  If you get there and find you enjoy it, meet more!
  • Do the one thing that you have wanted to do, but have been afraid to do.  Maybe it’s travel to a conference in another state or attend a workshop or do a speaking gig.  Whatever it is, choose the date and then do it!

Make a pact with yourself that you will start stepping outside your comfort and safety zone, even just a little bit, in order to reap all of the amazing experiences that are just out there waiting for you!  You will so gratified you did.  And when you do, be sure to drop me a note at kim@kimravida.com  (or simply reply to this email).  Or if you wish to share with a larger audience, post to my blog!

If you are ready now to step outside of that comfort zone, I have an amazing place for you to step into.  It is my 2016 Prosperous Business Mastery Group Mastermind Program that I am running beginning January 5.  Click here for the details.  It’s a great place to stretch yourself to grow and reap the rewards you want for you and your business.

Do you feel like you are all alone?

Video conference with coworkers from abroadDo you consider yourself a master of your business? Master in this case meaning: somebody controlling or influencing events or other things, or somebody who is highly skilled.I am not keen on the word ‘controlling’. I really prefer the word ‘influencing’. To me, influence means to have an effect on something – such as an outcome. So from this point on, let’s talk about being masterful in your business from an influential point of view.

If you are a master in and of your business, then you would be able to create results that you want. Sounds powerful, right?

It is. In fact, this is what many business owners ultimately want for themselves. My clients won’t tell you that they started out wanting to be influential to themselves or others, but what they will tell you is that they knew something was missing. They knew something was holding them back from reaching their goals and from making the money they wanted to make (and often needed to keep their business open).

As a business owner, to be influential (or if you prefer “in control”) you need to do certain things in a certain way. In order to influence others to work with you and to be a part of your success, you need to be masterful.

How does one become masterful? There are many ways, but one that works beautifully and will put you on the fast-track is to mastermind with other like-minded individuals.

What is a mastermind? Napoleon Hill defines the “Master Mind” “as coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose.” When you join a mastermind group, you have more than one brain (you know the saying “Two brains are better than one”?) to help you in your endeavor of becoming masterful at your business.

Here are several examples of areas where you might gain knowledge and how a mastermind can help you:

  1. Mindset. We can get caught up in a negative way of thinking (mindset) that can hold us back. Being a part of a mastermind will allow others to share their perspective on your challenge that will help you see it in a new light so you can continue moving forward.
  2. Business Activities. Such as sales, marketing, managing team and such. My current mastermind group consists of women from all areas of business, internet-based as well as brick and mortar, and they each possess unique talents and skills that others in the group learn from.
  3. Support and Community. Because your mastermind group is not attached to the outcome of your decisions, they are able to be completely 100% honest with you about what they hear you say. Your mastermind group will challenge you to make bold commitments you might not otherwise make on your own.
  4. Accountability. Hopefully you will be stepping up in powerful and authentic ways in your business. Part of that growth and success is walking your talk and follow through. The beauty of a mastermind group is that they will hold you accountable to what you say you will do.

I’ve been a part of a mastermind in one shape or another since I began my business. I believe being a part of one has been a driving force in my learning and growth (as well as the power behind being motivated to accomplish what I say I will).

The goal of a mastermind is to provide a safe place for you to share your vulnerabilities (we all have them) and to ask for what you need. It’s a tool to grow beyond your wildest imagination and become more powerful than you even believe you are.

I will have a mastermind group forming in the near future; if you’d like more information about, drop me a line.

If you have experienced the benefits of a mastermind, I’d love to hear what you love best about it. Be sure to drop me a note at kim@kimravida.com. Or if you wish to share with a larger audience, post to my blog below!

But I have to treat my business seriously! Seriously?

Goofy businesswoman talks on her phone headset. I often get asked if I enjoy working by myself and my answer is a resounding YES!  Then the next thing I get asked is who do I have fun with at work.  Well, myself!  Doesn’t everyone know how to have fun on their own?

Right now as I am writing this, I’ve put on an Amazon Prime 80s radio station and am having fun listening to Foreigner, Dire Straits and other 80s bands.  I couldn’t do that when I worked in corporate. 

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t have fun working with other people, I sure did, loads of it.  Just recently I met with a friend whom I worked with in corporate and we were cracking up over all of our “work” shenanigans.

Many of my clients, before they began to work with me, were not having fun in their business.  They were struggling, frustrated and often in tears.  I’m not saying I don’t have those moments, because I do.  As a matter of fact, I just had one.  Then I remembered my objective: to have fun in my business.  See, at the end of my corporate career, I was miserably unhappy so I vowed I would never find myself in that situation again.

So how can you have fun while running your business?  Here are a few tips:

  • Determine that you want fun in your business.  One client said to me, “I can’t have fun in my business; I have to take it seriously.”  Seriously?  Fun also means amusing, enjoyable, pleasurable, and entertaining.  I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be in an enjoyable place than in a somber, solemn, grave place (yes, those are other words for serious).
  • Decide what fun looks like for you.  Fun for everyone is different.  What do you think is fun?  Is it fun to come into the office and declare the queen has arrived, wear funky clothing or jewelry, and drink from a fun cup?  I am always accompanied by one of my dogs and I joyfully declare the “office is open” and it cracks me up.
  • Incorporate fun dailyMaybe you call a colleague and have a laugh, watch a YouTube video or read a joke. What matters is that you put fun into your daily schedule. If you’re getting to the end of your day and realize you haven’t had fun yet, jump up and dance, sing to a song, be silly.  Trust me, it works (I’m bee-bopping to Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” – think that’s not fun?).  What will you do?
  • Remember that fun IS #1!  This comes in handy on those days that you are pressing to get projects done and tasks are coming at you faster than you can imagine.  Or on those days where you are overwhelmed and feeling like you want to go and get a j-o-b because this business building thing is freakin’ hard!  Stop and remind yourself that Fun is #1 in your business and then go and have some – yes, right then – whenever you feel that frustration, struggle or hopelessness.  When you do, you’ll not only feel instant relief but you’ll also discover how easy things come together simply by taking a moment and having fun!

Life was made to be enjoyed.  Let’s face it, in business there are many things that can be depressing; not enough clients, not enough money, having to do a lot of things you don’t like or do well.  I’m sure you could rattle off a quick list, but you can’t fully enjoy life if you’re not also enjoying your business.

Whether you are entertaining yourself (like I am today =) or are with others where laughter abounds, incorporating a little fun into your business day is an amazing way to create a lot of uplifting energy that will have you attracting the right kinds of people, experiences and success in no time!

If you already are making Fun #1 in your business or if you decided to incorporate it after reading this, I’d love to hear how.  Be sure to drop me a note to let me know what you are doing for fun!  Or if you wish to share with a larger audience, post below to my blog!

Do you have a healthy relationship with money?

u.s. dollar banknote in heart shapeI’m passionate about health.  When we talk about health though, we are usually referring to our physical condition.  But health can be used for other areas of our life as well, like a healthy relationship with our spouse, children, friends, colleagues and so on.  You may very well be aware of that and even strive to have both — a healthy physical condition as well as healthy relationships.

Here’s another area to think about.  Do you have a healthy relationship with money or are you constantly feeling stress, strife and conflict around money?  Do you say:  “I don’t have enough”, “I can’t afford that”, “Money’s hard to make”?  If so, this plays havoc in your life and even double havoc if you happen to be a business owner!

I too had an unhealthy relationship with money.  I constantly felt and talked about never having enough money, having a hard time making money and how I couldn’t do things or have experiences because I didn’t have the money.  ARGH – it was not only depressing but each day in my business was a struggle!

Fortunately, I realized I was doing this to myself and feeling this way… and I knew something needed to change.  What I was doing obviously wasn’t working and I didn’t want to stay frustrated and in struggle any longer!  Also as a fitness instructor (at the time) and a coach helping people make changes in their lives, I knew it was important for me to make a big change and finally get a handle on my money!

I began paying attention to those thoughts and feelings I was having, and what I was telling myself and others about not having enough money.  And by taking small, specific actions I was able to change my harmful relationship with money to one that is healthy and life altering.

Here are a few things I learned that will help you:

  • The number one thing you must do is to value money!  It is vital to your success in having a healthy relationship with money.  If you don’t value something, you are basically saying “it’s not important”.
  • Create powerful, empowering money habits.  A few examples are to track your income daily or weekly, set up a debt repayment plan and a regular savings plan.
  • Pay your bills on time or even early.  Yes, really.

Those are just a very small sampling of what I discovered.  They worked so well that I began coaching my life and business clients to adopt healthy habits around money too.

Through my personal — and also my clients’ – experiences, I realized that what I had discovered was so amazing and life-changing that I simply had to share it with more people.  I decided to take what I know and put it into a program… and I did. It’s called Grow Your Money Tree and I just launched it this week! Check it out because it might be exactly what you’re looking for and it’s being offered with Super Early Bird Pricing!

https://kimravida.com/grow-your-money-tree-home-study-program/

 

Achieving or OVERachieving?

Speedometer - Exceeding Expectations of Your CustomersAchieving your goal(s) is a feeling like no other.  When you reach what you have been striving for, there is no better feeling.  Just ask an Olympic athlete or a professional athlete who has won the biggest trophy in their sport.  Ask anyone who has triumphed over adversity.

Achieve means to attain, get, realize, reach, complete and pull off.  Sounds pretty amazing, right?  So then, I wanted to know what does overachieving mean?  I did a little research and it means:  Do better than expected, to perform better or be more successful than expected.  Well, that doesn’t sound all that bad! Why do we tend to think that overachieving is derogatory?

But wait a second, how is it to “do better than expected”?  If I just achieve, am I saying I’ll settle for less than what I really want?  Not exactly.  I’m not necessarily overachieving if I’m doing what I expect, am I?

That didn’t sit well with me.

I found another way to look at overachieving and this made sense to me:  “To be excessively or unhealthily dedicated to achieving success.”  It’s not in the achieving or doing better than you anticipated when the “over” comes in to play, but in the excessive or unhealthy manner of achieving your goals/outcomes.

The differences between achieving and overachieving are in the approach.  If you are to be great at what you do, you need to dedicate time, resources and yourself to your pursuit.  Yet, often in that pursuit there is a moment when the achieving crosses the line into overachieving.

If you find yourself constantly working, overdoing things, and being obsessive and compulsive about making sure things are just so, chances are you are an OVERachiever.  There is nothing wrong with achieving – we should all strive to achieve — but overachieving pretty much defeats and overshadows that act of achieving.

Many of my clients are in overachieving-mode, never satisfied with the pursuit of the goal or even the attainment of it.  They are on to the next thing without acknowledging what they have accomplished, big or small.

To the OVERacheivers out there, I highly suggest you keep an accomplishment log and review it often so that you can see all that you are accomplishing… and slow down to enjoy your successes.

Stop Automatically Listening to Others!

stop listeningOne thing I know for sure is that the best way to create stress in your life is to live your life according to someone else.  I know this because that is exactly what I did for many years.  I listened to what other people told me and I believed that they knew better than I did.

For me, I had a self-confidence issue.  I wasn’t confident in myself at all.  So when someone told me something – anything — I took it to be true, believed it and did it.  As in, I stayed with a job that was horrible, abusive and stressful for many years because I was told by my loved ones that I “had a good job”.  Of course they would say that!  They were on the outside looking in.  They saw I worked at a stable company, got paid well, had great benefits and so on.  What they couldn’t understand was how poorly I was treated on a daily basis, how stressful and negative the environment was, and how unsupporting management was.  My loved ones didn’t know my true feelings because they didn’t live my life.

Makes sense right?  Yet, because I didn’t believe in myself, I listened to them.  They must know better, than me.  They must know more because they are older than me.  They must know because of their experience.  That is what I thought!

I know better now.  There is no way they could know because they are not me.  My father had a saying “You don’t know what someone is going through unless you walk in their shoes, and since you only walk in your shoes be careful about judging someone else.”  Oh, this is so true!  We must be careful to not judge.  Because honestly, who are we to say what someone else should or shouldn’t do?

If only I knew then that my loved-ones couldn’t know better than me – about me – because they weren’t walking in my shoes.

If you are reading this, more than likely you are looking to clear your stress.  I have news for you that you might not like, but it is valuable.  If you bring it into your life, you’ll eliminate lots of your stress immediately.  Stop automatically listening to others.

Often people give us wonderful information that we might not have discovered and learned on our own — but you need to question, “Is this true for me?”  Also question who told you that, and are they the best person for you to listen to?  Can they absolutely know what you are going through, what you need to do, what you want to do?  Have they walked in your shoes?  Are they really trying to help or are they afraid that by you making a change, they will also have to change?  (That’s biggie and a topic for another day.)

Please remember, you are truly the only person who can decide what is best for you!  And that will go a long way to removing and clearing your stress in your life.

3 Secrets to Money Success

MoneyI love secrets!  But what is a secret? It’s something we usually can’t or don’t tell another.  Well, a secret can also be something that is undisclosed or hush-hush.  When it comes to women and money there are lots of secrets in the way of if you don’t tell or talk about it, it ain’t happening.

Well, I’ve got news for you, it IS happening and that usually isn’t good.  So I want to share with you three secrets.  Once I disclose these to you, and you know about them, you’ll be on your way to money success and happiness!

Secret #1:  Discover Your Money Patterns and Behaviors.  In other words, this is how you “do” money consciously or unconsciously.  And believe me, when it comes to money we all do things unconsciously.  You probably say you want more money and to be better at money.  Well, in order to have money success, you need to look at your patterns and behaviors.  One of the ways to identify your patterns and behaviors is to understand your money archetypes.  Archetypes represent a pattern of power within you.  Meaning stories, beliefs, motivations, fears, courage and perspectives.  They speak to you through your subconscious.  When you are aware of your money patterns, you’ll be able to see objectively how you handle your money: your spending and saving patterns, your decisions around money, what you do and what you don’t do. Ultimately you will be better at money so that you can start making the changes you want.

Secret #2:  Create a Positive Money Story.  What is your money story?  A money story is the narrative you tell yourself about money.  Some examples are:  Money is hard to make, I’m not good with money, money doesn’t grow on trees, and things of that nature.  Take a few moments and write down what the money story is that you grew up with.  Is it one that is serving you or is it holding you back?  If it isn’t serving you, change it!  You have the power to change what you believe about money.  Now, there is way more to this topic and when I work with my private clients, we go through several exercises to really get clear on this and to heal ingrained money beliefs and legacies.  But for now, just start thinking about what you want your money story to be right here in the present.

Secret #3:  Empower Your Voice.  Empower means:  Authorize – Allow – Sanction – Give Power to – Make Powerful.  What this means for YOU is that you get to do all those things for yourself.  By authorizing yourself, allowing yourself, sanctioning yourself to be, do and have all that you want, you give power to yourself (and make yourself powerful) simply by connecting with – and creating a healthy relationship with – your money.  Empowering Your Voice is about being confident to speak up for what you want and to get what you want.  Again, this is the tip of the iceberg here and when I work with my private clients we go through a very powerful exercise that has them empowering their voice in so many amazing and unsuspecting ways.  I’ve had women who, after going through the exercise with me, decide to stop hiding out from their spouses.  They finally have what they felt were hard conversations about money but which turned out to bring them closer to their spouse.  I’ve had clients leave jobs they were unhappy in and find ones that made their heart sing.  There is no telling what can come from Empowering Your Voice.  For you, right now, just think about what is it you want and then ask for it — speak up and declare it!  You won’t be sorry, I will guarantee that.

Once you embrace these 3 Secrets to Money Success, you will be on your way to your financial freedom, inner self-worth and money success!

If you are interested in learning more about your Money Archetypes which I mentioned in Secret #1, and taking your very own personalized money archetype assessment, email me at kim@kimravida.com and put in the subject “I want to know my Money Archetypes.”  Yes, it’s that easy!

Do you have ‘secrets’ about money? Do you know your patterns? What’s your money story?  Post them below!

Yup, procrastination gets you every time!

Right time, right place in wood typeDid you ever drag your feet on doing something and when you finally did it you thought, “Now why didn’t I do that sooner?” Or “I wish I did that sooner”?  Yes, probably most of us have.  The beauty is to remember that you did it and therefore can feel good about it.

Yet… there can also be a benefit to waiting. Right?

Now, I’m not promoting procrastination but there have been many times I delayed doing something and when I finally did it, I benefited even more than I originally thought I would.  You know, those times when something has happened or shifted in the meantime (while I was delaying) that intensified the beneficial end result.  Strange, huh?  If you think about it, I’m sure it’s happened to you also.

One of my clients had been talking about taking a specific action for many months, when I finally asked her if she really wanted to do what she said she wanted to do.  She did and through our conversation she realized that she had been putting it off because it wasn’t the right time to do it.  Sometimes timing is everything and that is a key piece.  Once she realized that, she gained a lot of peace and ease around it.

You can do the same thing. Ask yourself do you need to do this now?  If not, then you can postpone it and be on your way feeling good, feeling free and knowing that you will get it handled when the timing is right.

But wait… how is postponing “better” than procrastination?  If you look up procrastination in the dictionary (you don’t have to, I did it for you) it says:  to postpone doing something, especially as a regular practice.  So what is procrastination really?  It’s a habit.  A habit of doing something regularly so that it begins to be the way you are, how you are being.  Truthfully your way of being can make or break your success.  If you’re postponing on a regular basis, it’s a problem.

However, let’s leave off the ‘especially as a regular practice’ and take the part where it says “to postpone doing something”.  See, often in order to say ‘Yes’ to something we need to say ‘No’ to something else.  That can be hard to do!  Therefore we think we are procrastinating when we really are postponing.  Does that help take the sting off of you procrastinators?

Look, running your own business — heck your own life — has one challenge after another come up.  And that’s okay.  Lots of what we do is problem solve.  Being clear on whether you are postponing or procrastinating can mean all the difference between negative outcomes or positive outcomes.

Share below a time when you postponed something and discovered the pieces fell together in a better way. I know it’s happened to you!

The Secret to Success

I refuse to quit message, handwriting with chalk on blackboard, lifestyle change conceptDo you love secrets?  I used to as a kid; it was so awesome to hear “I’m just telling you this and no one else.” How thrilling it was to be the keeper of the secret!  However, I soon realized there were others who knew the same secret… so it wasn’t much of a secret, was it?

Then, how can I tell you the secret of success and still have it be a secret?  Doesn’t really make any sense, right?  Well, okay, the secret really isn’t a secret.  BUT it is something that if you do it, you will have success!  And if you don’t, you will continue to have stress, frustration and overwhelm, not to mention much unhappiness and feeling bad about yourself.  So what is this secret to success?

Drum roll, please.  The secret to success is to change your perspective.  Yes, change your perspective.  Easy, right?  Well, not so fast.  If it were, we’d actually do it.  If change were easy – well, we’d all have so much joy, happiness and success all of the time.  So what makes changing our perspective so challenging?  That’s easy to answer: it is all in the word ‘change’.  We need to alter, amend or adjust what we are thinking, doing and saying.  And oftentimes we aren’t clear on that and so we say “I hate change.”  And because we ‘hate’ change, we won’t do it. 

Notice that last phrase “won’t do it” – it has such a limiting feel, doesn’t it?  Picture a child stamping his/her foot – they normally don’t say “I won’t”, they just say “NO!” It’s the same thing when you say ‘won’t’.  Hmmm.  Ringing any bells?  ‘Can’t’ is a word that shows up, too.  Do you ever hear yourself saying “I can’t” either out loud or inside your head?  So my friend, when you find yourself in that ‘won’t’ and ‘can’t’ place, that’s a good time for the perspective change to come in.

Think of a time where you were trying to get something done and you kept coming up against obstacle after obstacle and finally you said “Never mind, I give up.”  What happened?  Did you suddenly have a bright idea of how to get what you wanted?  More often than not, the answer is yes.  I know because it happens to me and to my clients, so I’m not just making things up here.  It’s because you decided (without you even knowing) to have a perspective change – you gave up.  But what you really did was release the expectation to the outcome you had going on in your head.

See, when we change the way we look at things, no matter how small, the things we look at change.  Dr. Wayne Dyer says that all the time and he’s right.

So the secret is easy, right?  Change your perspective and change your life.  Yet so many people resist it because they are used to behaving in a certain way, even if it isn’t consciously.  We self-sabotage all the time and think we have no control over anything that happens to us.  But we do, we do!  Change is NOT hard.  Change is easy.  It is what we tell yourself about change that makes it hard.  We make up all of these stories in our head about this and that, and rarely do they come true.  All that does is hold us firmly rooted in stress, frustration and overwhelm that leads to unhappiness.  Give this secret a try and shift your perspective to something that is more pleasing to you and will bring you the happiness you want.

What’s one thing right now that you can change your perspective on?  Maybe it’s something you have been saying “I can’t” about or stomping your foot saying “NO, I won’t”.  Where can you have a slight perspective shift that will take you from stress, frustration and overwhelm to joy, peace and ease?  Go on, I know once you do it you will feel so much better!

When you do, feel free to comment below and let me know what the shift did for you and how much better you feel!

Have you had enough?

How much is enough conceptDid I get your attention?  Did you ask “Well, what is enough?”  Or did you think “What does ‘enough’ mean?”  For many of us we have no idea what ‘enough’ is or means.  Take money for example; I hear from my clients all the time “I just need enough money.” Or, “I just want to make enough money.”  But what does ‘enough’ mean?

So let’s first define ‘enough’.  It means sufficient, adequate, as much as necessary or as much as needed.  I’m not sure about you, but I know that my clients and most people (I’m including myself in there too) want more than needed.  I want enough money so that I can do and have whatever I want.  Plus, I want to feel secure and not have to worry if I can meet my financial obligations day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-money and yes, year-to-year.  Therefore, I want more than enough.

So have you had enough of enough?  My clients have.  When they say they just need enough money or to make enough, we do some coaching around that.  I ask them to define what enough is to them.  When they do, they realize that they actually want more.  And we then take it a step further and I ask “What do you want more for?”  It’s absolutely amazing what they say!  I hear things like: they can help more people, they can reach more, they can spend more time with their kids, on their health, take a trip, hire help and the list goes on.

Look, for most of us we do have enough, and it is okay to want more.  It’s actually more than okay because when you say “I want more” you will get it and you will also help more people around you.  Think of it this way, what if you had all the money in the world, would you do something to help someone else?  Many of you will say yes.  And so then, isn’t it worth striving for having more than enough?

I’d say so!  So say goodbye to just ‘enough’ and hello to moremore joy, more freedom, more happiness and dare I say more peace of mind!