Your Biz Your Way
“Asking people for money is all a bit icky, and it would be much better all round if I could just help people for free.” Oh, I think this is my favourite one of yours so far! And I believe it comes from most of us having begun life in the world of work by having a job. There you don’t have to ask people for money. The unmentionable reason we are all there, toiling away at our workstations, is that we will be paid at the end of the week or month. We don’t ask for it, it is […]
“The endless fear that any idea, no matter how noble and/or amazing, will never generate enough money to support me.” Endless fear just goes with the territory of self-employment. Until you adapt. Until it becomes your new normal. Until you no longer notice. Be brave, me hearty. You can do this. Avast! However, as you embrace those fears, I don’t want them to do internal damage, I want them to embolden you. I want you to bust through them and stand on them to tackle the next one. I am careful to point out here that this isn’t all there […]
“The overwhelming ‘bag lady’ scenario that screeches into panoramic view whenever an idea that stretches me appears.” OK, let me see if I get this one. The overwhelming bag lady scenario only screeches into view with a stretchy idea, but not with easier ones? That is a form of delicious bonkersness, of course. Thank you! I have been prey myself to the bag lady thing, on occasion. We all are. So what I and my self-employed pals do is go into it, explore it, see what it would be like and what might happen. If you ended up in a […]
“Nobody will want to buy my artwork when there is so much choice out there.” Ooh, I’ve got another client talking to me along these same lines right now. My favourite stat in answer to this question, you’ll remember, is that there are about 7.5 billion people in the world. That’s a lot. And as a coach, I only need about 100 of those a year to make a cracking living in My Biz My Way. Yes, there’s a lot of art in the world, but there are a lot of business coaches too. And this is an entirely good […]
This is Question 15 from my book Your Biz Your Way: How Can I Lessen the Feelings of Utter Chaos? Towards the end of the summer term, a client of mine confessed to feeling “utterly chaotic”. Don’t all mothers feel like that at the end of term? Aren’t we all hanging on to get as much of our work done alongside all the other duties and responsibilities in our lives and businesses, especially if we know we are going to switch off for a couple of months to be with the kids? Chaotic doesn’t feel nice, I know. When I […]
The full question #14 from my book Your Biz Your Way is “How Can I Step Up to a Bigger Game Without Feeling Exposed? What if exposure isn’t what it takes, just visibility? My client who offered this conundrum is on the cusp of playing bigger. She is a woman who has more than enough capacity for that. She has capacity in bucketfuls. Her capacity is full to overflowing. We all have this. We all have the capacity to be extraordinary if we choose. Her anxiety is around feeling exposed. This is just a re-frame opportunity. You need never do […]
Some of my clients’ problems are like buses. Three come along at once. And this question is a fabulous example of that. Three separate clients and colleagues (two teams led by women, and one by a man, so this isn’t a female thing, it’s a niceness thing) are grappling with matters arising from one “troublemaker” on staff. That person doesn’t even need to be causing orthodox trouble. But what they are doing is unsettling the team and using up inordinate amounts of everyone’s time and psychic energy while we all work out what to do about them. One of my […]
This is Question 12 of 52 asked and answered in my book Your Biz Your Way. “A lot of people are afraid because they have never tried anything different. My fear comes from having tried and it didn’t go to plan.” What your question reminds me of is what they say in the financial world of investments: Past performance is no guarantee (or even indication) of future results. My first ever personal development book and one which would still be in my top 10 is Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers and it is still the […]
“Other people have shit lives; it’s not fair if mine is lovely.” More than anyone your questions make me want to begin with dearie, dearie me. How did you get to be so complex? It isn’t clever and it isn’t funny. Stop it immediately. Gentle Reader, I can only speak to this woman like this because I know her well, she has a robust GSOH, she knows she’s bonkers in quite a good and delightful way and some tough love is what she’s after; if we were on Skype together she’d confess this and we’d laugh at that alter ego […]
This is question 10 from my book Your Biz Your Way. The full question is: Look how great they are! Why on earth would I even bother trying? And here’s my answer: Modesty is a great (often peculiarly British) quality and I find it very attractive. But this is bonkersness on a grand scale. And I know you are an intelligent woman of tall order so this is not a brainy question so much as a feelings one. You are a hostage to your feelings at times, a lot of the times. Aren’t we all? The answer is, as your brain […]