rainbowsoverruins

Taking Notice of Your Inner Advice More Quickly

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Today, I am laughing at myself.  You see, I just realized that I have spent months developing tools and techniques, visualizing, planning and taking action toward my goals, yet missed something that was right in front of my face.

In “Rainbows Over Ruins,” I tell you my story, however, I want you to be able to do this for yourself.  This has translated into the development of a social media platform where you can find me and content for a course on these topics.

There’s a touch of’ do as I say, not as I do in this.’  Note that I instruct others to develop a strong relationship with their Higher Self; call it your subconscious mind is you wish.  This relationship can be an important factor in achieving goals.  That’s where the humor comes in.  I am not always listening to my own inner voice.  I think I am listening and taking action when I receive an impetus to do something, however, often I just file the ideas away for future reference.

Here’s an example:  In “Rainbows Over Ruins,” I describe my desire to build a center where people can develop their ability to use the power of their mind, work with others, and incubate their dreams into realization.  Over the past few months, the sense that I should begin to focus on this center has grown ever stronger.  I often suggest students should ask themselves a question – What can I do today to feel the way I want to feel when I have or achieve my dream?  Asking myself that question, the answer that has come up is to volunteer at a similar venue to my dream site.  I’ve been searching for one.

Spiritworks-Center For Spiritual Living - Burbank, CA, United StatesThe humor in this is that this week I realized that the Universe has been pointing me to a place for months.  I drive past it on the way to work most mornings.  A colleague, John Charnay, discussed it with me a few months ago.  And I kept saying to myself, “I’ll get over there.  I’ll introduce myself.”  Then John scheduled a workshop at the very same facility on vision boards (which you may be aware are one of my passions). Of course I went, both to support John and because I love playing with vision boards.  The results: (i) a new, smaller board for my home office, (ii) a visit to the SpiritWorks center, (iii) meeting the very person on my list of people to contact, and (iv) seeing that the facility has several components of my dream center.  This may very well be an ideal place to actively pursue volunteer work.  Plus, a new afformation is being added to my routine:  Why am I listening responsively to inner suggestions I receive?

I wonder, what inner nudges are you receiving that you are just not taking the time to investigate?  Today is a perfect day to explore possible answers that may move your dream projects one step closer.  Let down your resistance; let go of the compulsion to know and control everything – and see what happens.  It’s just one step after all, not a lifelong commitment.

May you find joy in the discovery of what your Higher Self is suggesting for you.

To Your Success,

Susan

 

The 30 Day Podcasting Challenge – Checking In

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Whoopee! My microphone has arrived! Am I really that excited about a microphone? Yes. It’s one of the few pieces of physical equipment that are part of doing podcasts.

Remember, a few weeks ago, I was telling you about the upcoming 30 Day Podcasting Challenge led by D’vorah Lanksy and Doug Foresta? Well, our group has been going through the steps for a little over 10 days now. Together, D’vorah and Doug crafted short audio and video instructions with simple action steps to complete each day, coupled with the very supportive Facebook interchanges.

I ran into a snag early on over the title for my podcast series. I was set on a title when Doug mentioned that you should always check on the availability of your title. By doing a quick search on Google and iTunes, I learned immediately that the idea I had was already taken. So it was back to the drawing board or thinking board in this case.

Taking a survey of friends and readers, I found that they enjoyed my book Rainbows Over Ruins because of its inspiring stories, perfect to incorporate into my podcast series.

Doug emphasized that if your listeners have no idea why a technique will benefit them, their ears will not pick up. And as the group began a little word crafting for a title, I became aware that too broad a title does not capture the hearts and minds of listeners. Although it took a couple days for me to hit on the right title, doing so helped me to hone in on the exact people who would want to listen to my podcasts.

The lesson? When people glance over or hear your title, you only have a few seconds to communicate the exact problem and desired results to them.

The new title? “Rebuilding Your Life: Moving from Disaster to Prosperity.” It’s specific and expresses my point of view. You can get past great loss. You can rebuild your life and go on to do much more. I am passionate about it because I lived my way through it after the landslide.

Once I felt comfortable with my podcast title, it’s been fairly easy to move through the next steps. I’ve been downloading software for recording, editing, converting to MP3 and distributing podcasts. I’ve purchased the microphone.

We’re designing our Intros and Outros for our series now. It’s very creative as I look for the royalty-free music and reasonable voiceover talent to pull the wraps for the podcasts together. I’m ready for the next week of our challenge and cannot wait to get started. While our first group is now 10 days into the challenge, anyone can join at any time as these are self-directed lessons. If you’ve been thinking about doing a podcast, you’ll find this really helpful. Here’s the link — http://podcastingsuccesssecrets.com/access/aff/go/susans

If this is beginning to sound like a review to you, you may not realize that I’m already a great fan of D’vorah Lansky’s.

She took me through the step by step process of conducting a Virtual Blog Tour. The experience was great and her Facebook community was filled with people who actively engage with one another. The end result: I was able to meet so many new people in many different places around the world and bring my audience with me.

D’vorah has a great gift. She is able to step out instructions with the same skill as a good Do-It-Yourself expert on television. I love hearing about great projects I can do, however, when it gets down to making those ideas a reality, it really helps to be working with someone who can explain them as I execute each step.

Fast forward, when D’vorah announced that she would be teaming up with Doug to help authors reach larger audiences through podcasting, I was enthusiastic about participating. What once felt highly technical and out of reach for me is now within reach. The process is no longer getting in the way and the instant feedback and exchange of ideas is making the 30 Day Challenge every bit as enjoyable as the Virtual Book Tour several months ago.

Stage fright be gone! This is going to be lots of fun.

To Your Success,

 

Susan

The Key to Developing Persistance

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Tenacity. It is a quality that develops when you are fixed upon your purpose. It’s a necessary quality to have when you are trying something challenging or that will take considerable time to achieve. Tenacity implies that you will do whatever it takes to accomplish your vision and reach your goals.   It involves persistence, determination and perseverance, all strong words that support the theories of success.

Regular students of success philosophies are familiar with the writings and stories about persistence. Napoleon Hill gave us the often used quote: Anything the human mind can conceive and believe, when organized around a purpose and a plan, can be achieved. All too often, the organization phrase is left out in common usage, yet it is the key to achievement. Knowing your purpose and developing a plan that you can follow with persistence yields the prize.

Bob Proctor, the success coach commonly known from his appearance in the movie The Secret, began his successful pursuits when he studied the words of Napoleon Hill and owned them through his actions.   He went from $4,000 a year income as a fireman to over $100,000 within a year. He built multiple, highly successful janitorial services using the principles of success before moving into the personal development field. To this day, Proctor devotes one month a year re-reading one specific chapter every day. It is the chapter on persistence.

Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich is filled with stories of perseverance. An entire chapter is devoted to persistence. Greg Reid and Sharon Lechter picked up on one of those stories as they wrote Three Feet from Gold, the tale of a young man who gave up his pursuit of a vein of gold, only to have the new owner find it three feet from where he had stopped. Greg has gone on to write extensively on this quality of persistence – stickiness.

Hill is clear on one point. The ability to develop determination and the self-discipline to pursue our goals begins with purpose. A couple weeks ago, I suggested that you might find this a great time to plan for your New Year’s resolutions so that you could build them around your goals. Such planning constitutes a great strategy session that improves your chance of achieving goals because you attach them to your purpose and the big “Why” behind the actions you choose to take.

If you are going through this process, you may want to ask a few questions of yourself. What is it about your goal that resonates deep within you? Call it passion. Call it purpose. Why does it fill you with enthusiasm and drive? Why does it stick with you even when you experience obstacles? The answer is extremely important to your ability to maintain the pressure that moves you along the path to your greatest desires.

And if you are unclear about your purpose, one of your resolutions may be to identify your purpose this year. A good place to start might be to observe yourself. What are you drawn to? What do you study or watch? Who are your friends? Who are your heroes and heroines? Where do you like to go? What things do you want? If money is your big goal, ask yourself why? What does money mean to you? What feelings come up when you think about having money? How will you use it? If you had all the money you currently dream about having, what would your life look like? As you go through these questions, a pattern of feelings will emerge around the things you have in your current lifestyle and the ones you would like to have.   How will you feel when you have them?

Purpose brings a sense of direction. Purpose brings passion. Passion brings tenacity and the ability to stick to it. The emotions you feel when you sense movement toward that which you desire brings such joy and well-being. Take the time this season to align with how you envision your dreams and draw the road map that appears to take you to them. With this in hand, may you find all the tenacity you require to not only keep your New Year’s resolutions, but also move steadily toward your goals.

To Your Success,

Susan

The Joy of a 3 Day Weekend

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I really needed this fabulous weekend. The past couple weeks have been stressful as we strive to create great shows, while facing the challenge to bring the season in “on time and on budget.” So, it has felt great to kick back, curled up to finish a novel I’ve been slowly reading. I had planned to do things around the house and to promote Rainbows Over Ruins.

If you haven’t read my book yet, the story focuses on my growing awareness that there is a creative thought process that makes it possible to identify what you truly desire, choose actions that support it and get the results you want. Since my entire career has centered on producing, facilitating, and supporting the unfettered creative spirit, coaching this process in order to achieve our creative potential is a natural outgrowth. The book has been a first step in that direction.

Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to making progress on my To-Do list. One of those items was to focus on the needs and desires of my target audience. Because the book is about our recovery after a landslide destroyed our home, I was looking for people who have to change for any number of reasons or survive difficult situations as I have done. They will have to prepare to transition to new opportunities, develop their outer game by setting goals and taking positive actions as they rethink, redefine and reignite their purpose. If they are developing businesses (and a significant number are), they will engage in strategic planning, team building, and deal with conflict resolution. It will be easier if they ask for help.

As I meandered through the Internet doing a Google search, the keyword I liked most was the word “creativity.” When you are in recovery mode, you benefit from the ability to access your creative potential. This involves the inner game, connected to limitless possibilities. As new creative techniques are learned and applied to common life and workplace challenges, an entirely different energy emerges. It yields a positive outlook and forward looking capacity, even in the face of adversity. It energizes the creative spirit and makes all things possible. If you learn how to flip your thinking, pop paradigms, ask better questions and use power habits, you find your creative self and reap the full benefit of the creative process for personal development and business projects.

With thoughts about creativity tumbling around my mind, I felt a call to look over the draft of my business plan. If you’ve read the book, you know that I have a dream to create a center where people can learn these skills, as well as writing an additional book about the creative workplace. Turning again to the draft proposal, I was reminded of one of my Dad’s stories. It was a bit of a horror story, really, about the tragic ends to doctoral students who could not answer one key question when they went before the panel for their doctoral review: What is the benefit of this work for individuals and businesses? What is the value? In the case of the business plan, the questions would be: Why do we need a Center? Why do we need to improve our creativity?

So my last day off is being spent answering those questions. It has been very helpful to turn to the work of Bruce Nussbaum, author of Creative Intelligence. (I had picked up a copy of his book several months ago in one of those serendipitous moments – a Godwink – when an entire table at Barnes and Noble was dedicated to books on creativity.)

It feels good to hear my own words validated on his pages. We are all creative, even when we are just doing our jobs, even if we don’t think of ourselves that way. But Nussbaum also makes two points that address the question if this work has value to others. Of course, he believes it does.

From a needs perspective, everyone feels the effects of a rapidly changing world. We live in what the military calls VUCA, a time that is “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Nussbaum observes his students coping with this by an awareness that they need to create their own opportunities “in order to survive, and they [want] to learn how.” (Creative Intelligence, p. 16). Of course, it isn’t just the students who face this. All of us do. “We need to prepare ourselves for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems that we haven’t recognized” (CI, p. 33).

This affects anyone in transition or any form of life crisis. Just as the rug is pulled out from under them, they face the need to redefine and recreate themselves in a new world they barely understand. They need a way to raise their awareness that there are creative skills they can learn so that they have the means to face these issues in a proactive way.

But the joy of this work – and I’m all about joy and well-being – does not center on the needs aspect. Bruce Nussbaum also mentions Sonia Manchanda, of IDIOM (India), who asks: “Why not focus on aspirations – dreams that we may not believe are even possible?” (CI, p. 29)

Remember, within each crisis is opportunity. Each of us has the chance to learn to focus our ideas into creations that have value and bring us joy, a sense of accomplishment, and the chance to help others. Great potential comes from strong aspirations coupled with the willingness to flip one’s counterproductive thoughts, develop power habits and direct them toward successful results.

I may not have a center yet, however, thanks to a strange meandering 3 day weekend, I am centered on its value. May you find similar times to discover your aspirations and begin to see them unfold.

To Your Success,

Susan

PREPARING TO LAUNCH

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With the arrival of the first books, all my energies have shifted. For so long my focus has been on writing, nurturing my relationship with the subconscious mind that is allied to creative consciousness. I have allowed my Inner Game to dominate my thinking on weekends which is when I make time to do so.

However, taking the publication to others involves developing a strategy, an Outer Game of goals, plans and actions designed to yield my desired results. Of course, I’ve been thinking about it, but here is the moment of truth when actions speak louder than words, literally. There are questions to ask myself. Where do I go from here? What do I hope to accomplish? What will my activities look like once I have manifested my vision?

Although I used to think of strategic planning in finite, tangible terms, I have come to realize that it involves both inner and outer aspects. What we create is as much what we visualize in our minds as it is the outer manifestation. So what do we need to imagine? What mind movies need to stream across the screen of the conscious mind?

When I took strategic planning in graduate school, six areas stood out: products and services, clients or customers, personnel, operations, finances, marketing and the surrounding environment. As we answer questions, we define and affect all the other components of our results.

S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). – What is the environment in which we find ourselves? Is there a great deal of competition? What is our U.S.P., Unique Selling Proposition? What value do we bring to our prospects?

Products and Services. My mentors were quick to ask me: what happens after your book is published? And they weren’t referring only to book tours and book signings. Did I want to keep writing? Was I building a legacy as a thought leader? Or as a media coach? Was I building a business with products and services?

Personnel. Who needs to be part of the team? Do I want people to be in an office full-time or would I be better served by hiring services from outside vendors or virtual assistants (VAs). Do I have someone to handle the accounting? Do I need legal services?

Operations. How will we make our products? How will we deliver products and services? Will we find fulfillment companies or do it ourselves? What systems will we have in place for payment? Will we ever meet those who purchase in person or will we connect primarily via phone and Internet? Will we interact one-on-one or in larger groups? Will our office be “brick and mortar” or “click?” Will we work from home or obtain space for offices and production?

For the moment, my office will be virtual – my website – which will serve to dispense information on products and services, a taste of my teaching, core information and a point of sale. In earlier websites, I forgot the point of sale part, but if a website is to provide the means to build a business, it needs to help generate income.

I’ve spent the past few weeks writing content for the site, as well as working with Kim Barbieri, a visual marketer who has helped Peter and me with our books and websites for several years now. Kim helped me choose the look of the site by suggesting I browse through several sites I knew and pick out the ones I liked. That would serve as a jumping off point. It reminded me of how Steve Lenchner (Lenchner Glass) works with his clients, suggesting that they bring in samples to provide a feel for their likes. (Note: Both Kim and Steve have radio interviews talking about their businesses archived on my BlogTalkRadio show “Susan Sherayko Online” at BlogTalkRadio.com.)

Anyway, Kim had me visit the Template Monster. From there, it was all about choosing the architecture that would give me visual results I desired. My preliminary design utilizes a photo changer for visual interest until I feel more proficient working with audio and video on the site. The website – www.susansherayko.com – is live, however, I will continue to test and tweak it.

Marketing. How will I make people aware of my products and services in order to share them with others? Although we enjoy creating products, if we are to continue to do so, we will need financial resources. Whether we are selling or raising such resources, we will have to communicate with others in a way that inspires them to engage with us.

Writers have a variety of options based on whether they self-publish or are being handled by a publishing house, but they still have to choose how actively they participate in order to achieve the best results.

I will kick off my marketing campaign with a book launch. It’s a big party to celebrate publishing a book. Now, I have always enjoyed a fun theme party. For years, Peter and I held an annual beast feast in January to wrap up the holiday season. Not knowing exactly what one does at a launch party, I’ve been doing a little research. I think it can be lots of fun, especially when you consider that launches can incorporate both live and virtual attendees. You can invite everyone you have ever wanted to “have over” and they can join the festivities no matter where they are.

Additionally, you can invite “book bloggers” to participate when an area of your party space is set up with computers where people can interact, post comments and pictures and truly celebrate! I’ll keep you posted on how this goes as this is a new kind of party for me.

Finances. All of these answers that we design into our project, simple or complex, have to be fueled. They help us determine our budget, the means of financing and how it will be controlled.

Add one more category: Lifestyle. When all is said and done, what will your lifestyle look like? Look at the day to day way you’ll live, as well as the leisure possibilities when you are successful. Now is the time to edit your decisions before they are in place and more costly to shift. Of course, you can always make changes along the way. My plans have clarified over the months of going through the publishing process, working with my mentor and growing awareness of options.

Questions keep coming. How do you work with a V.A.? What is the most effective marketing plan for my lifestyle? How do you launch in cyberspace?

I’ve learned to ask better questions to help me attain the results I desire. Here’s hoping you do too.

To Your Success,

Susan

Reporting in: I am where I am and it’s okay

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I am surprised to see how long it has been since I last posted here. Life has taken me off on a creative journey that has consumed every waking moment – and probably quite a few sleeping moments as well. I am happy to report that I am pleased with where I am now. It has taken several years to move from the night of the landslide through the rebuilding process, yet today, I stand at a place of infinite possibility.

You would think it would be enough to have found a ranch to replace the one we lost or to be part of a daily morning show like “Home and Family” that airs on Hallmark Channel. But that was only a piece of the puzzle.

Along the way, I became fascinated with the creative process. What did we do to make the ranch a reality? How could I learn to do that consciously? How could I help others do it too? I had studied to become a life coach, then refined my studies to understand the power of the mind and success principles as one of Bob Proctor’s LifeSuccess Consultants. Bob encouraged each of his students to write a book, but who was I to write? What could I write that would have meaning for anyone else?

In the end, I decided to translate an outline of the creative process into real life experience. The old adage held true – if you really want to know a subject, teach others about it. I set out to live what I was learning and share that journey. It was painful at times as I wrestled with the application of new ideas on old paradigms. Whenever I hit a roadblock in my understanding that interfered with the writing, new experiences would crop up to help me learn what was needed to move forward.

It took time to write, but after working with the editors at Balboa Press, I expect to place the resulting book titled “Rainbows Over Ruins” in physical production shortly. There will also be a free e-workbook available for anyone who would like to be mentored on their own creative journey while reading my story.

“Rainbows Over Ruins” is what one of my colleagues calls a Siddhartha journey. Along the way, I learned that the creative process embodies success principles. Creativity is an intimate dance with quantum consciousness, the interplay of conscious ideas, questions, and feelings with the power of the subconscious mind to take action and get results.

As I prepare to update listings to reflect my new status as author, I feel a bit like Indiana Jones, about to step off at a leap of faith location. I am so grateful for the support of my many mentors and colleagues. We have to do things on our own, but we do not do them alone. In that spirit, I offer the following question to get your juices flowing. Why do you want to create what you want today?

To Your Success,

Susan

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