How To Avoid The Mistakes Made By Spiritual Entrepreneurs
Published October 12th, 2011 | 
There’s never been a better time to be a spiritual entrepreneur. And if you’re a coach, healer, psychic or complementary therapist that means YOU!
The 2012 shift is bringing the masculine and feminine energies into balance. Feminine energy is the intuitive, creativity, the flexibility and flow, it’s that beautiful heart centered transformation that is that thing you do. Masculine energy is the rational business logic that gives the structure to the business so that you can make money and support yourself whilst you do that thing you do.
As a spiritual entrepreneur you are the role model showing the way for others. For you to be that role model you need to have your own balance right. Here are just a few of the mistakes that some spiritual entrepreneurs make and how you can avoid them.
Mistakes spiritual entrepreneurs make
1. Being fair to others but not themselves
It’s not good business practice to give away too much. Being overly generous with your clients, team and suppliers will only leave you feeling tired, and fed up. Over the long term you may even notice a little resentment creeping in. Instead go for the Win-Win where you win as well.
2. Undercharge and over work
Many spiritual entrepreneurs have issues with money and charging. They don’t charge enough to make their business viable. They end up burnt out, stressed and just plain tired. This doesn’t serve either you or your clients.
3. Not having a clear business plan
Being a spiritual entrepreneur means being both spiritual AND an entrepreneur. And a good entrepreneur obeys the laws and rules of business, which starts with having a plan. Planning how much income you intend to generate and how you intend to do this is essential good business practice. You can’t run a business on “Hopium”.
4. Using intuition where logic is needed
Intuition is great, but it doesn’t make for great business planning. Use intuition to help guide you and then do the maths. Work out the costing and budgets and work within that.
5. Not trusting your intuition
Many spiritual entrepreneurs find it so easy to always see the good in others that they forget to heed their own intuition when it’s telling them NOT to get involved with a particular project or person. Trust your intuition.
6. Not setting time aside to connect to source
When your business starts to take off it can be a whirlwind of activity and work. You might be able to manage for a few days, weeks or even months without checking in with source, but over the long term you can go wildly off track.
How to avoid those mistakes
Make sure every transaction is a Win-Win. If you lose they lose too. It’s OK to be fair to yourself first.
Use logic. Set budgets. Learn how to put together a solid business plan, and then take the steps to put your plan into action.
Have great boundaries. Clearly express them and enforce them. Use the magic words “that won’t work for me” as gentle way of saying no.
Separate yourself from your business. You HAVE a business. You are not your business. This helps too when stating your fee.
Don’t be too trusting. Remember the saying. “Trust in Allah and tie your camel”, which is another way of saying “read the small print”.
Decide how much your service is worth and charge that. Work this out, not on the time you spend, but the value you deliver. It’s about what they get, not what you give.
Stick to your fees and don’t discount. You are only selling your client short. If they value your service and the transformation, they will pay for it. If they won’t pay, then it’s because it’s not worth it to them. Find someone who for whom it IS worth it.
How to get your coaching clients to succeed every time
Published August 31st, 2011 | 
As a coach your success is directly related to the results your clients achieve as a result of your coaching programme. If your clients succeed, you succeed.
But the success or failure of your coaching programme is largely down to whether or not your clients complete the tasks and assignments you set them. If they don’t complete their assignments and tasks they will fail and that will impact on your reputation.
Let’s face it if they want to change their life or achieve something they are going to have to do something, they are going to have to take some kind of action. You can invite, encourage, support, advise, guide and persuade, but at the end of the day it’s down to the client.
And it’s a good thing it is because it puts the client in control, and empowers them. But some clients just don’t do their homework. They come back time and time again with excuse after excuse. You know they aren’t going to get the result they came for so what can you do?
What can you do to keep them and their coaching programme on track?
Here is a highly effective system to keep your clients on track which guarantees they succeed every time.
1. Get Them To Agree On Their Tasking And Timescale
The first step is to get them to agree on their own assignments and tasking. At the end of each session ask them what actions they are going to take and by when. Some of these will be suggested by you during the session and you can make these as recommendations which they will agree to complete.
Ask them “When do you realistically think you can complete that by?” Let them decide what will work for them and fit in with their other commitments. Ask some extra questions if the timescale seems too long or short, or if the amount of work seems too big or small.
Then when they’ve agreed this make a note in their notes. Follow up with an email with the tasking listed out and timescale.
2. Follow Up In Their Next Session
When they come back for their next session,ask them how they are getting on with their tasking? What have they completed? What is not completed?
3. Find Out What Stopped Them
For any tasks that they haven’t completed this is a sign that they have some kind of block, and you need to find out what stopped them.
A great question to ask is “What stopped you from completing that task?”
There are two acceptable reasons.
- They’re not very good at it. If this is the case you can explore what they need to know or learn that will make it possible. It may be they need some instructions or coaching, or it might be more appropriate to delegate some tasks (especially technical ones) which you can also coach them on.
- The other reason is their confidence, fear, limiting beliefs. In this case you need to use an effective therapeutic technique that removes and releases these.
This is what really separates mediocre from brilliant coaches as having these techniques enables your clients to fly through their tasking next time. When they achieve massive success it will have them come back time and again and telling all their friends about their massive results.
4. What If They Still Don’t Do It?
Once they know what to do, and know they can do it, there isn’t really any reason they shouldn’t do it other than procrastinating. Some clients need to be held accountable in a firm, supporting and also loving way.
So if they still don’t complete their tasking here are three essential questions to ask them that will keep them on track.
- “Are you aware we had an agreement that you would complete this assignment by now?”. If you emailed them the tasking there shouldn’t be any confusion about this.
- “Are you aware that you broke the agreement?”
- “Are you willing to re-make the agreement?”
5. The Three Strikes Rule
If they break their agreement more than 3 times, then you should resign them as a client. Let them know that they have three chances, and also make it clear that completing of their tasking is essential for their success and that failure to complete their tasking will lead to the failure of their coaching programme.
Business Boundaries – How To Stop Giving Your Time For Free
Published June 22nd, 2011 | In any business you need to have clear boundaries both internally with your staff, but also externally with your clients.
In tough economic times it’s easy to think that you should be prepared to do absolutely anything to get a client and then to keep them happy, but that is the fastest road to madness.
Coaches, healers and psychics are particularly susceptible to over delivering their services, often to prospects who aren’t currently, and often never will be, your client.
Here’s how it happens…
A prospective client contacts you with “a quick question”. You think it might be about one of your programmes or products and that it might lead to a new client so you take the call.
The caller starts to tell you their problems, often going into minute detail and starting back when they were aged 3. They talk and talk, and ask questions. If you happen to be a psychic they might ask you what you “pick up” or “see” for them. And because you are a kind person you might tell them. If you’re a coach you might even find yourself doing coaching with them.
After an hour’s conversation, they go away feeling great with their problem solved but you’re left tired, drained, and probably a bit frustrated. You didn’t get the thing done that you needed to do. You have less time to market yourself and bring in the business that, let’s face it, you really need right now. You also have less time for the clients who HAVE invested in themselves on your programme, and you have less time for yourself and family. Time is the ONE commodity you can’t make more of.
You might try to kid yourself saying “well maybe they’ll come back and sign up later”. They might, but that happens in only a very few cases and it’s really not an effective business strategy. What you need to do is have a strategy that filters out the “just curious” tyre kickers and time wasters.
So how do you prevent it?
When you’re asked questions that require you to deliver something that is part of your paid for service never tell them you won’t do that for free – instead use this simple process to say no whilst seeming to say yes.
Never tell them you won’t do it. Instead tell them how they can get this information/service, and offer them a paid for service.
Here is a script you can use when you are asked a question that will require you to use your hard earned skills.
- Check if it’s important to them or if they are “just curious”. “This is really important to you isn’t it?” If they say no then stop there and politely end the conversation, or you could ask them what IS important to them.
- If they say Yes. “Great. And because this is so important the best way I can serve you is with my undivided 100% dedicated attention and energy, you deserve that. So let’s book you in for a session where we can work together to solve this properly. The investment for this is xxx and I have a slot next Tuesday at 11.00am. Shall we go ahead and make the booking?”
- If they say No Act surprised and say “Oh, I’m sorry! I thought you said this was important to you!”
Make sure you stand firm. They may say they can’t afford it or have no money, or that their cat just died or any number of reasons why they think you should give your services for free. But the truth is if they really wanted that solution they would invest in it.
Personally I don’t like to work with people who are “just curious”. I prefer to work with people committed to long term and profound change. And I even tell people that they may make the booking and they may not, but either way you stop giving away your time for free.
How To Overcome Childcare Guilt
Published December 8th, 2010 | There’s no doubt that raising children is a challenge. When you are working or running a business on top of it the challenges are even greater. Being a parent is a role that everyone on the planet seems to feel entitled to have a say in how you’re doing in a way that simply doe
Most women entrepreneurs experience childcare guilt at some point in the growth of their business. It can be challenging finding yourself torn between these two important roles in your life.
It’s ironic really because often one of the reasons women work is so they can give their children a better life. And those who choose self employment do so to create flexibility to be there for their children whilst growing their financial independence.
There is enormous pressure to be the perfect parent with no other desire than to be there for their children, and this can take its toll on female entrepreneurs.
Let’s face it. Your business is one of your children. And if it’s not, you’re probably just playing at this business game. It takes that level of passion and commitment to your business to grow it.
But that leaves many women torn. When they’re working on their business they feel guilty, and (paradoxically) when they’re with their children they feel guilty that they’re not dedicated to their business.
So what’s the solution?
Here are some simple things to help overcome childcare guilt
1. Don’t feel guilty, make decisions.
The purpose of guilt is for you to make changes in the future. Let’s say you feel you’ve spent too much time working and not enough with your children, and that makes you feel guilty. Either use that guilt as a sign that you need to change your behaviour or use it to decide to change what you believe about childcare. If you decide to change your beliefs, you can choose to believe that what you are doing is fine and let go of the guilt. Either way you will stop feeling guilty.
2. Recognise that you are always doing your best
Although you best may be different on different days and at different times, you are always doing what you believe to be best at the time. So some days you will spend more time with your children than others. Some days you’ll be an attentive parent, other days when lot’s is going on at work you’ll be distracted. So what! You’re still doing your best.
3. Don’t be influenced by other people’s ideas about childcare
Never before has there been more societal pressure on parents to be perfect or more conflicting views on what is the best way to raise children. Children now rule family life in a way that they never have before. In past generations outsourcing childcare to grandparents (for the less affluent) and nanny’s or boarding schools for the more affluent was considered entirely normal.
Nowadays if women show any sign of not wanting to be surgically attached to their children until they are 25 seems to be taken as evidence that that they are not “proper mothers”.
The truth is that there is no right or wrong way to bring up your children. Some mothers like spending more time with their children than others and that doesn’t make them bad mothers, it makes them different mothers.
4. Children will always want more attention.
Even if you were with them 24 hours a day, they would probably still want your attention when you were asleep if you let them. Growing up is about learning to be independent and that start by you allowing them to play without your intervention.
5. The purpose of childhood is to learn to be adults
With so much emphasis on having a “happy childhood” it’s easy to forget that the real purpose of childhood is to learn to be adults. So by showing your children how you behave responsibly and that you expect them to do so too you are teaching them a valuable lesson. By saying “no not now” you teach them boundaries. By having others look after them you teach them “you’re OK even when I’m not here”. By asking them to behave responsibly and independently when you need to work you’re teaching them how to entertain themselves and behave responsibly. That’s much more important for their happiness right into adulthood.
6. Teach your children the importance of care of themselves
You teach your children how to take care of themselves by showing them how you take care of yourself.
Take time out for yourself and say NO to all and any interruptions. This shows, by example, that we all need to take responsibility for our own health, and happiness. Working yourself to the bone, only to then work yourself even harder when you’re with your kids only teaches them to become a martyr. Instead take time out for a lie down, watch a movie, take a bath, meditate and let your children know that you are NOT to be interrupted unless they are on FIRE! It will only take a few times so just keep enforcing your boundaries, and don’t reward interruptions with attention.
7. Be a role model not a martyr
Studies show that children of women who don’t work can grow up with very limited expectations of women. Boys can grow up to believe that women don’t or can’t work and that women are not as important as men.
Girls grow up with low aspirations. By showing your sons and daughters how to be happy and successful and dedicated to achieving your dreams and ambitions, they are more likely to have higher aspirations and enjoy working towards achieving their dreams. They will be less likely to grow up with an entitlement mentality too. Stop feeling guilty that you’re not with them all the time, and change your attitude of one of teaching by example that this is how people achieve their dreams.
If you put your dreams on hold till they have grown and left you will miss this opportunity to teach them how to be successful. Rather than apologising for working and not being with them, celebrate your successes with them even talk to them about how much you enjoy working for and achieving your goals. You will inspire them.
8. Consider learning how to release guilt from the past.
Feeling the emotion of guilt in the present has the positive purpose of guiding you to change behaviour, but if you continue to feel guilt in the present that results from actions taken in the PAST then this is useless and damaging. Consider a therapeutic intervention to release it.
For free instant access to our emotional resilience online course from Emotional Resilience Online.
By Dr. Lisa Turner
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