Yep, I know it’s not Sunday but I feel it’s time for Confession.  I’m sending this blog directly to all the dynamo, successful, have-their-stuff together bloggers in the blogosphere.  After having it weigh on my mind heavily for nearly two months (I have not posted a blog since March 14, 2013) I’m finally confessing that I haven’t been following the rules of consistent blogging as a business owner should.  Instead of continuing the charade that I know exactly what to blog about but have just been too busy to do it, I figure now is the perfect time to tell the truth. YES, I’ve finally decided to confess that I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT!!!  I mean, there are thousands of interesting & relevant mommy bloggers, business bloggers, financial bloggers… but where do I fit into the scope of it all?  How do I find what to blog about that won’t put me, or my readers, to sleep?  Everything I do is about being FEARLESS and taking risks, but how do I FEARLESSLY jump into this massive world of blogging and hold people’s interest?

I figure I can’t be the only woman/mommy/biz owner who has this question.  So, I’m being the guinea pig and putting it out there — this womanpreneur/mompreneuer is making a “plea for help.” How do I discover my niche in a saturated blogosphere?  Looking forward to your replies and comments.

Signing off…
Transparently Frustrated Future Blogger

Cheryl

- Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO
- Jack Dorsey, Twitter Founder and Square CEO
- Kelly Ripa, Host of Live With Kelly and Michael
- Jay Leno, Host of The Tonight Show
- Martha Stewart
- Condoleeza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State
 
Check out the complete article about 19 Successful People Who Barely Sleep, http://tinyurl.com/9l6lkqu

Find more great articles at www.businessinsider.com

Cheryl

In addition, we featured interviews with:
- Doreen Rainey (www.doreenrainey.com)
- Angelique Rewers (www.thecorporateagent.com)
- Brandi Mitchell (www.brandimitchell.com)
- Dee Marshall (www.facebook.com/GirlfriendsPray)
- WISE Symposium (www.wisecenter.org)
- Kentland Girl Scouts Troop Leaders: Stephanie Burroughs and Lisa Watts

BE SURE TO PICK UP YOUR DIGITAL COPY at www.fwapmagazine.com

Cheryl

Let’s face it, we live in a very busy, fast-paced society. People value their time so it has to be worth it if you’re going to occupy some of it. The BIG question is: what will make your emails stand out from the masses? What will be the determing factor in someone choosing to read or to delete your emails?

I enjoyed an article in the Business Section of Inc.com written by Tom Searcy so much that I had to share it with my fellow business owners:

http://www.inc.com/tom-searcy/7-ways-to-ensure-your-emails-get-read.html

The key to getting noticed is to give special attention to 7 factors of every email you send:

- Subject Line
- Tone
- Content
- Your Sign-Off
- Timing
- Image
- Homework

Go back and look at the last 10 emails you sent to prospects or new contacts and read them with a critical eye to see if you followed all seven tips.

To learn more about Tom Searcy, visit http://www.huntbigsales.com/

Cheryl

By far, the portion of the blog that resonated with me most was this:

“There is one moment where a lot of my fellow speakers – even the most seasoned ones – start to feel nervous: at the end of their speech, when they make their audience an offer.

I like to remind these fretful folks of a simple truth: people show up to hear you because they know you can teach them something. So when you invite them to work with you one-on-one, buy your book, or your latest program, you’re telling them what the next steps are on their transformational journey.

Contrastingly, when you don’t make an offer, you’re leaving people hanging. When your audience is in tune with your vision after a great speech, you OWE it to them to offer more chances to learn from you.”

Lisa Nichols – Motivating the Masses

I must say I struggled with valuing my services and overcoming the fear of selling in the first few years of my business. But, I completely agree with Lisa in that it is your responsibility to offer people a way to extend their experience with you. It would be selfish to just leave them hanging. Granted, not everyone will take you up on your offer. But, you can have a restful mind when you know you did everything possible to offer people an opportunity to get the best of you and transform their lives.

THANK YOU, Lisa, for always offering such impactful insight, especially on the matter of serving or selling.

Cheryl

When the event organizer called me, he advised me that this was a conference on metrology. Yep, metrology. I had to Google the word just to have an understanding of what it meant and ask him for the correct pronunciation. As it turned out, this was a company that specializes in the science of measurement for the world’s leading automotive, aerospace, machine tool, and CMM manufacturers. The company was Automated Precision, Inc. (http://www.apisensor.com/). There were representatives in attendance from Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar, U.S. Air Force, and more. And, it is a male-dominated industry. So, not only was I stepping into an industry that I was completely unfamiliar with but I was also stepping outside of my normal “comfort zone” of primarily women participants. In fact, I was one of less than a handful of women in the room for the entire 2-day conference. There were approximately 100 attendees, a mixture of engineers, professors, physicists, mathematicians, and corporate executives.

You can imagine how intimidated I initially felt. In fact, fear immediately raised it’s ugly head and tried to creep in to make me doubt myself with a host of self-limiting thoughts: Will I be good enough? Can I pull this off? Will I pronounce the words correctly when I introduce the speakers? Will I meet the expectations of the person who hired me? Will I sound educated enough when I moderate the 1-hour panel discussion? You see, I am NOT an engineer, I am NOT a professor, I do NOT have a PhD, and I do NOT have a college degree. But, I do have passion, drive, belief in myself, and the guts to look fear dead in the eye and take a risk! And, that’s exactly what I did.

I FEARLESSLY accepted the invitation to “run the show” for 2-days and decided to go into the opportunity — not trying to be someone I was not and not under any false pretenses — but simply as ME, the real, true & authentic ME. I stood tall with full confidence in my ability to pull this off. You see, most of what we achieve is all about our mindset and thought process. As the famous quote goes, “if you believe you will fail, you probably will.” So, for me, failure could not be any part of my vocabulary or thoughts.

How did things turn out? Well, they turned out just as they do whenever any of us pushes ourself to the places that make us feel uncomfortable and uneasy — it was a huge success! By the end of the morning session, a number of the attendees sought me out and complimented me on how well I “ran the show”. At one point, I was walking down the hallway and heard someone yell out, “Cheryl, Cheryl.” I was a bit startled since I didn’t know anyone there. When I turned around there was a gentleman with the warmest smile reaching out to shake my hand. He said, “Cheryl, you are doing a dynamic job moderating this conference. You are so comfortable in your own skin. You have commanded the audience, handled yourself like a pro, AND had fun doing it. There are some people that you just know are shining stars, and you are one of them. I am highly impressed. If you ever need a reference, please call me.” As it turned out, this gentleman was the Chief Operating Officer of the company.

Cheryl Wood with Joe Bioty, Chief Operating Officer of Automated Precision, Inc. (API)

THE LESSON: Never underestimate what you are capable of achieving when you give yourself a chance and take the risk. Remain determined to silence your inner-critic and embrace your ability to be the best at whatever you set out to do. Most importantly, when you consider taking a risk, ask yourself “What’s the worst that can happen?” If it doesn’t involve a life threatening outcome, be FEARLESS and TAKE THE RISK!

Cheryl

I’ve also learned that great ideas come and go in business and that it’s important not to stay married to any one idea or way of doing things. During my journey as I’ve continued to observe and study some of the most successful businesses in the world (just take for example Microsoft and Facebook), it’s clear to me that you must keep an open mind for change. Change is constant and business owners who want to stay relevant must stay abreast of changing trends and the ongoing wants and needs of customers. Sometimes, business owners get stuck in a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality. The problem with that mentality is that while you’re remaining comfortable where you are and with what you’re already doing, your competitors are getting creative, thinking outside of the box, and developing added advantages that magnetize your customers. The success mentality is “if it ain’t broke how can I make it even better.”

In order to grow, develop, and constantly move forward in your business you may have to admit that the way you’re doing some things just isn’t working. It’s okay to make that admission and begin to shift in order to find what does work. For example, if you’re experiencing “feast or famine” cycles in your business and feeling more like a hobby than a business because your passion isn’t bringing you any profit, now is a good time to “get real with yourself” and kick the old way of doing things to the curb.

For 2013, take a long, close look at your business and ask yourself, “What is working that I can duplicate in 2013?” and “What isn’t working that I can kick to the curb and save myself lots of time, money, and heartache?”

This is the year to get honest and truthful with yourself so you can experience the success you want in business.

Cheryl

For me, FEARLESS doesn’t indicate that a person is completely void of fear.  In fact, I believe it means just the opposite.  In my world, FEARLESS is so much more than a word, it’s a deep-seated emotion that pushes you to take risks when you’re scared to death; to defy the odds stacked against you because you know there’s something better on the other side; to stand apart and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing; to pursue what nurtures your spirit when you have no idea what the outcome might be.  To be FEARLESS is to stand up to life, to roll with the punches, to knock the curve balls out of the park, to keep moving forward in your journey to achieve your wildest dreams for your life, career, or business goals without any consideration of slowing down or giving up.  Most importantly, FEARLESS is pulling your shoulders back and standing tall to refuse to let your talents and gifts lay dormant because you know that someone, somewhere needs those gifts and your example of strength, determination, courage, and boldness to become who they are destined to be.

Being FEARLESS is the emotion that causes you to tap into your innermost being to remind yourself that you have every right to discover what makes you feel alive and fulfilled even if it makes you quiver in the process.  It is the intentional decision to embrace your fears while discovering the best verion of YOU!

I remain committed to being FEARELSS in my own life and to empowering and equipping other women to stand in their personal power to become FEARLESS which is why I launched, Fearless With A Purpose Magazine, on December 13th.  View the magazine at: www.fwapmagazine.com.

Cheryl

As women, being nurturers and caretakers who love to serve, we have a tendency to do all that is expected of us without considering one of the most critical questions: Who am I and Who am I becoming?  At some point in our lives we used to have big dreams — you know, those dreams we now encourage our kids to go for!   But somewhere along the line through the journey of diapers and bottles, new attitudes and schools, and eventually college, we lose ourselves.  We forget that the best way to be a great mom is to set an example for our children of a woman and mommy who is living her best life, reaching her greatest potential, and not letting excuses stand in the way of pursuing her passion and purpose.  After all, our kids do what we “do” not so much what we “say.”

Today, I challenge you to start taking baby steps towards discovering the woman you are behind the tile of mommy.  And don’t allow guilt of not fulfilling your everyday responsibilities to stop you from at least attempting to do something new that will only enhance who you are as a person!

In line with the topic of doing more than serving, last week I had the privilege of being interviewed on The ChannelMom Show hosted out of Denver by fabulous mompreneur, Jenny Dean Schmidt, President & Radio Host.  Jenny is passionate about helping moms to soar and become the best version of themselves.  It was my pleasure to have a candid conversation withJenny.    Click this link to view a replay of the show, www.channelmom.com/how-to-follow-your-dream/.  The show is also available as a download on iTunes.

And be sure to support The ChannelMom Show by listening to the show on Denver’s 93.7FM/1510AM on Saturday’s from 8am-9pm or watch the live streaming at www.channelmom.com.

Cheryl

Utilize these helpful steps for taking action to live your dream instead of just thinking about it:

- Set a goal for every 30 days and write it down on paper (a goal that is not written is just a wish)

- Create a list of five new tasks each week to support achieving your 30-day goal

- Acknowledge the tasks you procrastinate on and start completing those tasks when you’re at your peak performance each day

- When you have setbacks don’t abandon the entire plan, simply get back on track as quickly as possible

- Even when you feel like you’re going nowhere, KEEP MOVING. The longer you continue to do something different you are bound to get different results.

Most importantly, remember that you have the personal power to create the story you want for your life but not without action. No action, No results.

BE FEARLESS!
Cheryl