Independence Day

July 4, 2018 By

History of the 4th of July.

The tradition of patriotic celebration became even more widespread after the War of 1812, in which the United States again faced Great Britain. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees.

I’m always fascinated as to how our holidays came to be. For a lot of folks it is another day off. Which, hey, I’m all for that too. Yet, as with everything there is always more to it.

So I poked around and found this awesome link about the history of July 4th:

“Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.

Falling in mid-summer, the Fourth of July has since the late 19th century become a major focus of leisure activities and a common occasion for family get-togethers, often involving fireworks and outdoor barbecues. The most common symbol of the holiday is the American flag, and a common musical accompaniment is “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.”

I thought I’d share it with you since it is afterall, the 4th of July! https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” –John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961

Click To Tweet

May you have a happy, healthy and fun Independence Day (if you are in the United States)! 😊✨ And may you remember that you have all it takes to create independence for yourself and your business.

I know it’s summer and a lot of people put things on hold. If you are one of those that want to keep your momentum going through the summer and need a little support, set up a free 30 minute session with me. We’ll create a do-able plan that still leave room for you to enjoy your summer!  Click here to be on your way.

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

Just who do you think you are?

May 2, 2018 By

Who do you think you are?

Did you have to think about who you are? Or were you able to shout out exactly who you are? Did you have to think who do I think I am?

Finish this statement “I am ______________”.

A previous blog I wrote about faking it touched a few nerves. I’m glad. It got people thinking. If we all truly stood in our truth of who we really are, no one would need to fake, come up with an excuse or dodge people. Authenticity is a big word in the coaching industry. And lots of clients want to be authentic.

While this is a great thing to aspire to, many can’t even answer who they are. It’s not unusual, our world makes us second guess ourselves. If you said I am sensitive, you may think that is a negative. In fact, it is a true gift. If you said I am strong, perhaps you feel that people will think you are full of yourself. See, often we don’t know (or want to admit) who we truly are because the outside world has given us a negative message about it. One that forces us to hide who we truly are.

Are you trying to be something or someone?

I so love Coco Chanel’s quote “How many cares one loses when one decided not to be something, but be someone.” When I first read it I had to give it some thought. I wasn’t sure exactly how to interpret it. Then I realized that she is talking about being you.

How many times have you struggled with something that wasn’t “you”? And you knew it! You even may have said “that wasn’t for me”. Yet, you were doing it (or are doing it). Maybe you were doing something you thought would make you successful or would bring you something you wanted. Perhaps you learned that you had to work hard to succeed and get ahead. Maybe you just felt like you had to attain a certain status.

By truly being who you are, you can let go of worrying about what others think and truly be who you are at your core. No excuses, no trying to be someone or something you are not. You are who you are and it feels good.

It’s time to show the world just who you KNOW you are. -Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

Just who are you really?

Go back to that I AM statement. Can you emphatically shout out who you are? Without excuse or apology? Can you stand it? If push comes to shove, will you be able to stand in that space and embrace it? It may take a little practice. Heck, everything takes practice. A champion isn’t born, a champion is made one practice at a time, one mindset shift at a time, one experience at a time.

My belief is that you truly do know who you are. You may just be afraid to embrace it. It may be scary to say it out loud. We do know who we are, we just feel vulnerable and afraid to embrace it for various reasons. Those fears are usually attached to what other people may say. We often have a fear of being ridiculed, being told “who do you think you are”, being belittled and so on. So we don’t speak up, we don’t embrace who we are. In my book, that is no way to live your life (I know, I’ve done it)!

You know who you are, now it’s time to show the world just who you KNOW you are!

Having been there myself, I know how hard it can be to own your own truth. Much less tell the world. You don’t need to suffer in silence, if you would like to step into who you truly are, and feel you need a little help, a little support, I’d love to help you. Set up your free private session with me to step into who you truly are (no excuses or apologies)!

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

3 Simple Steps to Double Your Income

April 25, 2018 By

Are you finding it hard to bring in more income?

It’s not. Easy for me to say? No, it isn’t. For a long time I found it hard to bring in more income. I’d have clients, then they would complete (aka reach their goals) and move on and then I’d have no clients and so on. It was in that phase of not having clients that I found it hard. Though truth be told, I was doing three things that set myself up for finding it hard to bring in more income.

And I’m going to share with you what to do so that you don’t have to struggle like I did. If you are a small or solo business owner these three things will make a big difference for you. You can even do them on your own. Meaning, they are very do-able without spending a lot of time on them. Which means, you’ll have lots of time to get out and make more income!

All money is a matter of belief. Adam Smith

Click To Tweet

3 Simple Steps to Double Your Income

Before I share them with you, I want to first address “simple”. Things that are simple actually get done. The more complicated you make them, the less you’ll want to do them and so they won’t be able to work for you. So let’s just agree that you’ll keep things simple. Ok? Great, here they are:

  1. Take on a Powerful, Positive Mindset. Your mindset will make or break you. No matter what it is you are struggling with, getting new business in the door, networking, setting up appointments, etc, your mindset is to blame. When you have a struggle on the outside, you always have a struggle on the inside.
  2. Set Attainable Goals. In working with business owners like you, I notice a lot have pie in the sky goals. Things like I want to earn six figures this year. Yes, this is a great goal, in fact it can be powerful, but when I ask them how they are going to do that they tell me “I don’t know.” If you only have two clients who are paying you $250 a month and you have no one on the horizon and aren’t doing any marketing to get more, is six figures even possible?
  3. Measure Your Results. Another mistake I made and I see others making is that they don’t have any idea where they are in the cycle of their results. Take money for example. You say you want to make $10,000 a month. How will you know that you made that $10,000 if you aren’t measuring it. And do you want a net or a gross $10,000 (ah, did you forget to calculate your expenses)? Tracking your results is the only way to know if you have truly met your attainable goals and/or if you need to course correct.

How to put the 3 simple steps into practice

Having a powerful, positive mindset, setting attainable goals and measuring your results work simultaneously toward doubling your income. Next is your assignment to put the three into action:

  • Set time aside to create your own powerful, positive mindset. Take a look at your business closely. Determine how you want to show up in each aspect of it. From the actual marketing, service and/or product delivery, customer service, to your role as leader, use of time management and productivity and other key areas. If you aren’t sure what key areas you need to pay attention to download my OPTIMAL Business Success Free Assessment to get started.
  • Write out your goals to see if they are indeed attainable.  Do a little diligence. Write out a few ideas of how you will know when you have attained them. Make sure you are clear. Write about in detail the things you need in order to reach these goals. Such as hiring team, replacing equipment, getting help such as a trainer or coach to help you reach your goals.
  • Create tracking systems. This will by far keep you honest about where exactly you are in your success cycle. And out of the failure cycle. When you know where you are and what you need to do to get to where you want to be, you will find it’s easy to get there.

These steps will not take you long to put into place. The important thing is that you do them. Everything else you have been doing will fall into place. You may even see that things you have been doing aren’t working for you or you can do differently to get the results you desire.

Here is to your OPTIMAL Business Success! 😊

If you’ve download the OPTIMAL Business Success Free Assessment and discovered that you don’t want to do this alone, I’ve worked with a lot of business women who struggled with trying to double their income (in fact, one of my clients increased her income by 80% with these simple steps!), set up a free private session with me and we’ll get you started!

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Self Worth, Structure Tagged With: , , , ,

Are You Faking It Until You Make It Or Are You Being Authentic?

April 18, 2018 By

How to tell if you are faking it or being authentic.

Faking it or being authentic? I had an interesting conversation with a client the other day. She had heard someone say that you can’t fake it until you make it because then that meant you were being inauthentic. This bothered her. There were things she was doing to grow her business. And there were some she was doing things that she didn’t really love but knew brought her the results she wanted.

She had been going along working to reach the goals she set and was reaching them when all of sudden she was stopped in her tracks. This concept of being fake threw her for a loop. “I want to be authentic” she told me. So I asked her what made her think she wasn’t being authentic.

Her response was, “well, I’m not doing what I love to grow my business, I’m only doing it because it’s something that works.” I asked her if she felt she was being genuine in her actions, to herself and to her clients. She responded  “Oh, yes!” with enthusiasm.

What does authentic mean? If you Google it you’ll get this: something that is real, genuine. And if you are being real and genuine you can’t be faking it.

“Authenticity: The courage to be yourself.” Anonymous

Click To Tweet

There are times I’m not totally genuine…, then what?

True, there may be times when you are less then genuine. Such as “I’d love to work with you, but now is not the right time.” when you truly are just saying that to get off the phone with whomever is asking for your business. A heartfelt, “No, thank you, this is not for me.” would be truly authentic.

I’m not going to get into little white lies here, so let’s just say only you know when you are being authentic or fake. Now, if you truly want to be authentic, it’s time you look yourself in the mirror (no matter how hard that is) and tell yourself that no matter what, you will be authentic in your life.

Let go of the times you weren’t, learn from them and move on. The “then what” is you’ll no longer have to fake anything, you can really be yourself. Now, what a novel idea that is, eh?!

What if I still need to do things that I don’t want to do.

Welcome to life! Will my client stop doing what has been getting her results? No. Not entirely. What she will do though is look at it differently to be more authentic in her actions and that may cause her to do things differently. There are times that you do have to do things you don’t like, exercise anyone?! 😉 Going to the dentist, need I go on? I don’t think so, you get my point.

What I propose you do is to look at it differently, how can you be authentic even when doing things or being in situations that you do not like or do not want to do? How can you find one thing in a situation that you can use to show up as your true authentic self. And guess what, that may be to admit “I don’t want to be here.” Rather than smiling, sucking it up and saying “I’m so glad to be here.”

I can see the look of horror on your face. I can hear you saying “I can’t do that.” But, you can! I’m not saying it’s easy, I struggle with it myself and the alternative is to be fake and unauthentic. So what it is you want to be?

I thought so.

What did you think as you read this? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If I pushed any buttons, what were they and would you like to do anything about them? Either reply below or email me privately at kim@kimravida.com

I’ve worked with a lot of women who struggled with feeling that they weren’t being as authentic as they would like to be and who wanted to change that. If you feel that you are doing more faking it than you’d like, set up a free private session with me to help you find your authentic self!

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Self Worth, Structure Tagged With: , , , ,

Simple tips to live the life you want

August 24, 2017 By

Did you know that you are the one responsible for what you get in life?

You are. I’m not a big proponent of telling you things. I really like to share and have you test the waters to see if something is right for you, would work for you and help you in the way that you are wanting. So for me to say you are 100% responsible for your results goes against what I normally teach you.

Though I’m doing it because it’s something you need to hear. In order to live your life the way you want to you need to stop making excuses and assigning blame to anyone other than yourself.

Ways you can get what you want in your life.

So, it’s up to you. Now what?! My goal here is to share with you ways in which you can get what you want.

I’ve been doing some Facebook Live Videos and wanted to share two with you. My most recent is about a trick to stop procrastinating. You can watch it here. If you have ever found yourself not getting to what you truly want to do, this will help you get there.

And the second one is about leaving white space in your calendar for the unexpected. We all know stuff happens. Yet, we never plan for it and end up feeling frustrated because we didn’t get to do what we wanted or needed to because of it. Click here to watch.

Both of these videos will get you started on the path to getting what you want in your life. Repeat after me:  “I will no longer just settle for what I get, I will be at the cause of it.”

In order to get what you want, you must be intentional and specific.

If you wake up and just start your day with whatever comes to you first, you will never find the time to do what it is you truly want. And you’ll end up settling. Your life is worth so much more.

Are you ready to stop behaviors that aren’t supporting you? I hope so!

Be intentional and specific about what you want your life, year, month, week, day to be like. Then go out and take the actions you need to in order to get there.

Your turn, what is one thing you want in life and what will you do in order to get it? I’d love to hear about either comment here or feel free to email me personally at kim@kimravida.com!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth, Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

The truth is, it’s all about you!

April 6, 2017 By

Good news! It’s about you.

Right off the bat, I’m giving you permission to make things about YOU!

My hope though is that you are already doing that. And just in case you aren’t, now is your time to do so. See as a solo entrepreneur/business owner it’s super-duper (yes, I just wrote that) important to take care of yourself.

You are the only one you have. And not only that but you are the only one your family has, your clients have, your friends have and so on. I think you get my point. Rather than ignoring you, what if you made it about you?

Consequently, you must realize just how important it is for you to take care of yourself. Your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health are mega important. Much has been written about balance. In particular, work/life balance. And much has been written about how that is impossible. It’s a matter of perspective. I like to look at balance as not 50/50 but in terms of how I’m feeling about my life and my work.

Why make it about you.

A wise woman once told me, “Kim, I take myself with me wherever I go and I want to feel good.” She meant both mind/body and spirit and she recognized that if she didn’t feel good in any of those areas she was out of balance. Take the time to do what YOU want to do – doesn’t matter if that is for your personal life or your business. You can trust me that you will at first feel a little weird, and then amazing.

You are more important than you believe you are.

First of all, can we agree that you ARE important? So before you tell me how you have so much to do and that others depend on you, take a moment to look into the future and envision the best version of yourself that you bring to your loved ones, your business and your clients. Then second, do what you need to do to make changes in your life so you have time to put yourself first. As a result, you will find that you have so much more to give others.

In conclusion, by taking care of yourself, you are better able to take care of everyone else. You’ll feel better, have more energy and be more equipped to reach both your personal and business goals! What’s not to like about that?!

Things will figure themselves out even without you.

And fear not, everything will be there for you when you are ready, and if not, maybe you didn’t need to do it/worry about it in the first place. The other thing you’ll find is things will figure themselves out. My previous blog was about taking time to rest, click here to read it if you haven’t already.

For now, determine what is one thing you will commit to doing for yourself to put yourself first in you life. Write it down and then do it. Notice how wonderful you feel and what happens in your life because you did it!

“You are more important than you believe you are” Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

If you are looking to make your client attraction about you and what you want (which I know is also to help many others;-), get my free offer! It is truly set for YOU to make it about you (so then it can be about them).

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

Sometimes The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Business Is Stop

March 16, 2017 By

All or nothing thinking.

It’s a go, go, go, type of world out there for businesses and sometimes the best thing you could do for yourself and your business is to STOP. It’s time to re-think this 24/7 thing you may find yourself in.

As a solo entrepreneur you are probably doing everything (or most of everything) yourself. It might be you feel you have to, you want to save money or you have no money to spend on help. While I don’t necessarily agree with that for the long haul, there may be really good reasons you are doing it now. And while you may not be able to afford help, you definitely can’t afford to burn yourself out.

I mean, if you are the only one doing the work, if you burn out, who will take your place? Um, that would be no-one! That means the best thing you can do for yourself and the business is to stop. Put a pause on what you are doing and take a rest.

Why you not only can take a rest but must do so.

As someone who is doing it all, you are burning the candle at both ends. Let’s list out what you might be doing on a daily and weekly basis:

  • Networking with potential clients
  • Email correspondence
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Marketing
  • Having sales conversations
  • Enrolling new clients
  • Onboarding new clients
  • Setting up and scheduling client appointments (and many more)
  • Bookkeeping
  • Daily, weekly and monthly administrative work

I could keep going, but you know what I’m talking about. In order for you to be fresh and keep your perspective open and receptive, it is imperative for you to have a fresh brain, body and attitude. Nothing turns off a potential client than someone who is frazzled and disheveled all of what can happen when you run yourself ragged. Is that the image you want to present to the world when you are out networking to get clients. I didn’t think so.

What taking a rest can do for you and your business.

If you are thinking “but I can’t take time off” hear me out. I’m not asking you to put your business on hold indefinitely or even for longer than say a weekend, what I’m hoping you’ll take away from this is that by taking time off, even if it is a weekend is that you will come back refreshed and with a new perspective. See time has a way of helping us see things differently.

“Time has a way of helping us see things differently.” Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

When I first started I worked pretty much round the clock – and would have continued to do so if it wasn’t for a colleague of mine, Julie Gray who wrote an article on why I was procrastinating (well, she wasn’t saying “I” as in “Kim, here is why you were procrastinating,” but she might as well have, it hit me like a ton of bricks). What she said was the reason we procrastinate was because we weren’t taking breaks or even time off.

After I read that I basically came to a stop. I couldn’t move, it was so true. I had been pushing, pushing, pushing and finding that I wasn’t getting all that far because I was procrastinating! So, I took her advice and decided to take weekends off and viola, Monday came and I was ready, willing and able to get my work done. I found I had more successes, I attracted more clients, I felt better and get this, things were easier to get done!

What would you rather, harder or easier?

Here is the good news, it’s all up to you. You can have it harder or easier, which would you like? I’m thinking easier. So then WHEN is it you will stop? When will you take a break? When will you give yourself the rest you not only need but that is paramount to the success of your business? Go ahead, pull out your calendar and then schedule in time off in the next 3-5 days (yes, that’s right – or even for the upcoming weekend), you won’t be sorry if you do, but you may be sorry if you don’t.

In the meantime, are you looking to build your business with ideal clients? Ideal meaning those that aren’t needy and make you feel you have to give them way more than you want? If so, sign up for my free offer below because it will help you find them!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

One simple way to improve your business

March 2, 2017 By

bonnie-kittle-186235

I’m big on keeping things simple. I spent a lot of time making things difficult and try as I might it was not the best thing for me. Which is why I like to teach other solo-entrepreneurs how to be successful keeping things simple.

What that simple thing is.

The last blog I wrote was to share with you that YOU were the advantage to your success.

Now I would like to tell you that the one simple way to improve your business is to trust that you are the advantage to it’s success. See, most of our wins or lack there of happen in between our ears. What I mean by that is the thoughts you think will either make or break you. Your mindset is the #1 thing that will improve your business.

Do you remember The Little Engine That Could? If so, then you’ll remember that may other trains didn’t help them, until along came the Little Engine who thought “I think I can”. The reason the Little Engine succeeded was because it had faith in itself.

The can-do mindset, a must for solo entrepreneurs – Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

Do you have faith in yourself?

Are you someone who knows you can do something and when the going gets tough, do you have thoughts that say “I think I can” even when you might not know for sure?

One simple thing you can do to improve your business is to have faith in yourself. If you have a strong belief in yourself and you always succeed, I’d love to hear about how you do that. If you need to have a little more faith in yourself, here are several questions for you to help you:

  • Write down 5 “I AM” statements that are true right now. An I AM statement is something that you know is true for you. Such as I AM resourceful, I AM strong, I AM someone who can figure things out. It describes the essence of who you are.
  • Write down 5 “I AM” statements that you want to be true. These may reflect who you really want to see yourself as.  Such as I AM willing to ask for help, I AM known for having the answers, I AM valued.
  • Look for gaps. Look at your I AM statements that you want to be true. Is there a gap between where you are and where you want to be? Does it feel like too big of a stretch or is it a do-able stretch.
  • Determine 1-2 actions that you are willing to take to bring you to your ideal I AM. This will help you gain more faith in yourself.

This exercise will help you: 1) see where you are perfectly tuned in to yourself,  2) see where you may not have faith in yourself and 3) see where you will be able to get to where you want to be.

The importance of your level of consciousness.

When you raise your level of consciousness about yourself it is impossible to be where you started. Once you begin to have faith in yourself, you will be just like the Little Engine That Could, on your way to business success.

When you are truly you, feeling comfortable with who you are, having faith in yourself for your successes and knowing that you have what it takes to get there, you get there in the most simplest way possible. Which means that you’ll do whatever it is that feels good for you.

So what’s it going to be? Will you do what needs to be done to have the mindset that brings you all the successes you want? I think I know the answer!

Are you a solo-preneur looking to build your business with ideal clients? If so, sign up for my free offer below because it will help you find them!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

The one thing that will give you the advantage

February 16, 2017 By

xm_2oqcbpiq-fernando-brasil

In life and in business you have ONE thing that gives YOU the advantage over anyone else.

What that one thing is.

It’s YOU.  I cannot tell you how often I’ve heard this: “Once I started listening to myself everything changed.”

Maybe you are someone who already knows this and uses it to your advantage and maybe you might be like I used to be and are listening to everyone else tell you what you should do.

I spent a good portion of my life (nevermind my business) listening to others. I did that because I didn’t feel confident in myself or my ability. Not the best combination when starting a business, let me tell ya. I thought that others knew what was best for me. It includes a laundry list of people from my close family to other coaches and mentors.  Everyone has good intentions, yet when you listen to someone other than you, you put yourself at a distinct disadvantage.

Be yourself, be only yourself because being yourself is the secret to your success

Click To Tweet

How to use yourself as the advantage.

One thing I learned was that no one else, no matter how well-intentioned, educated or experienced could tell me what was best for me. Only I knew that. For a very long time I’ve said “we are all unique and specially made” and that is because there is only ONE of you. Somehow my mantra got lost on me and I allowed outside influences to drive my actions.

And it wasn’t until I finally had done just about everything the someone else wanted me to do or thought it would be good for me and got nothing that I knew something had to change and that was I had to change.

So then, how do you use yourself as the advantage? I usually like to give you a number of tips or suggestions and today I’m only give you one. It’s this:

BE YOURSELF, BE ONLY YOURSELF BECAUSE BEING YOURSELF IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS

In addition to that, I’m also encouraging you to sign up for my free offer below because it will help you find the target market that fits you and what’s better than working with people that you really enjoy? Nothing, in fact, it’s so awesome that you’ll not want to miss out.

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Marketing, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,

It’s what you do that counts

November 29, 2016 By

Thought for the day.thought-for-the-day

If you can remember that it’s what you do that counts, then what happens to you won’t matter.

Today, no matter what happens, step back and remember that what you do counts. Are you reacting in a way that is negative or positive to yourself and others? Are you reacting in the same way for basically everything?

I like to teach my clients to respond rather than react, but first they need to know how they react in order to move to responding. When you can respond, you give yourself the option of being at choice. React, pretty much is just a default that happens automatically and often unconsciously.

Have you ever said, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean to do that?” or “I have no idea why I got so upset.” That’s your unconscious leading your actions rather than you being the leader. If you would like to react in a new, positive empowering way you can, all you need to do is start to notice how you react and then decide to change it. Then you can choose to respond.

 

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Self Worth Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »