When you’re hunting for new business, and especially when you’re a single shingle entrepreneur, it’s important for you to stretch your resources. One of the easiest ways to do that is to find the watering holes where your niche markets hang out together. If you can have an opportunity to speak to your target audience in a group, you’ll get far greater results than if you tried to find them and speak to each of them individually. Start today by profiling who is your niche market? What are their commonalities? What kinds of books/mags/websites etc. do they read? Where do they hang out? What do they watch on TV?

Once you’re clear on who they are and where they can be found (aka the watering hole), hunting becomes a walk in the park.

Happy Hunting!

All the best,

Heather White

CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

It’s not that the passion that lives within us is ever that far away, but it is true that it can become dormant if we don’t activate it. Sometimes that activation comes from a profound idea or thought, a stimulating conversation, a book or article that your read….or…a Flash Mob:

Watch the video here: Vancouver 2010 Dancing in the Streets Flashmob

How’s that for inspiring your passion??

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc

I think passion is another one of those words we toss around, assuming the meaning, but often not digging deep enough to understand the essence. Passion to me is alignment. Alignment of your natural gifts and talents with an arena of expression. Passion is the skater with a sheet of ice, the skiier with snow covered mountain peak, the golfer with a plush green fairway, the teacher on stage with an audience watching.

I think the biggest barrier between you and your passion is your knowledge and acceptance of yourself. Our whole life we are conditioned to believe that we are not good enough. That we have to learn more, earn more, say more, do more in order to reach some holy grail of accomplishment. This paradigm no longer serves us.

In the silence and stillness of your life is where you will hear your inner voice of wisdom talk to you about your true passions. From there, your job is to be open, to be honest and to be willing to take the necessary inspired action steps that will lead you on a path of alignment.

Passion is not something external that you need to go out and get. It’s internal and you simply need to allow it to come to the surface of your life.

Be brave!!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

There is one definite inevitability in life and that is, of course, death. Not usually a topic that most people want to talk about or frankly think about, but, nevertheless something that we cannot escape. Personally, my consideration of the concept is something that has given me an incredible amount of strength thus far. Whenever I have a desire to do something there is the almost immediate reaction from my mind. Sometimes it tells me why I can’t do it, sometime why I shouldn’t, sometimes it just laughs at my plans. I’ve heard many theories about why this happens, why do we get in our own way, why would we stop ourselves from giving something a try? We shouldn’t! We have to go for it!

When I watched the below video I was further convinced. The man on the video has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. In this, his last lecture, he gives a moving, practical, matter of fact speech about how and why to live a life in pursuit of your dreams. There is no time to put things off – we have to pursue those things that we have a desire to!

A version of Randy Pausch’s last lecture as seen on Oprah

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Selfishly selfless – what does that mean exactly? Well, for starters it means taking care of all your personal needs before anything else. Yeah, I know, sounds great eh? But the question I get over and over again, how? How exactly do I ‘do’ that?

Not unlike making any change, you have to begin with an audit, in this case of yourself. Do you even know what you would need to change in your life to be selfishly selfless? For me, I need a lot, but here’s a sample:

1. Food – I don’t know about you, but, if I’m hungry, I don’t cope well.

2. Sleep – unlike Tiger Woods, 5 hours doesn’t do it for me – I need 7-8 hrs

3. Exercise – I LOVE working out (I know, I know, you can punch me in the face now), but, I’m serious, I really do. For my entire life I’ve been an athlete. Athletics and working out my body is so much more to me than just staying in-shape. I’m the first to admit, I like the side effects, but moreso, I like the adrenalin rush, the connection with my body, feeling powerful and the confidence that comes as a result of exercising and challenging my body.

4. Music – it’s a constant for me, can’t live without it.

5. Money – I have a certain lifestyle that I enjoy, and that often requires a monetary exchange. Managing mine (both in my business and personal life) is a must.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.  Now it’s your turn.  This week I want you to identify what your non-negotiable needs are. Write them all down.  Then…

Tune in next week for the next step: Communicating Your New Rules

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

It’s more important than ever these days to take stock of who you are spending your time with? Are you hanging around with positive opportunists or negative nellies who are running around screaming the sky is falling. Are your conversations filled with hope and excitement or doom and gloom? Does your social environment challenge and uplift you or defeat and threaten you?

Trust me when I tell you that whether you want to acknowledge it or not, the people you are spending time with are influencing every part of your life. The way you think, the way you feel, the actions you do or don’t take – all are being shaped by the environment you are surrounding yourself with.

If the people in your life are not serving you, start the weening off process sooner than later – don’t put it off. You don’t have to be harsh or mean, you don’t even have to tell them, just stop going as often and don’t stay as long. Start looking around for those who you want to be like, or whom have things you admire or personalities you’d like to emulate. Start finding ways to hang out more with those who will assist you in growth and development.

This is the easiest, cheapest thing you can do right now to make sure you not only survive the so-called tough times, but, thrive!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Some people are stronger at things than others. That’s what makes business so magical. Before you get into new collaborations, take some time to get to know your own personal SWOT. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Strengths are things you are good at.

Weaknesses are things you suck at.

Opportunities are circumstances that make something possible

Threats are things that could cause person or professional damage

Make a list of characteristics you have for each area. Then look for people that don’t have the same profile as you do. Choosing those who are strong at your weaknesses and vice versa makes business grow under the partnership. If you have to people that love to sell and are horrible at details, unless you can find someone to do the details, you’ll just have bigger problems collectively. Have your partner do a SWOT analysis themselves and then compare with each other.

The mistake I see a lot of people make is that they try to get good at what they suck at. What they should do is just focus on what they are good at and find partners that are good at the other parts. For me, I’m a starter, not a finisher. I get my jump from building new business models, developing the cash flow process, and building out the systems, then I want a partner who can run the ball and keep me in the loop, but do what they do. If I find another starter, all we are going to do is start things and not finish them. Every good partnership has two sides that reflect one another, but have different skill sets. This is where collaboration gets very exciting. Birds of a feather, might flock together, but they rarely make money together.

Cheers,

Chris.

www.ghostceo.com

As a coach I am always forcing my clients to generate a plan B, no matter what, even if they’d rather die than not have their plan A come to fruition. Firstly because, as we all know, sometimes things don’t work out the way we plan, and that’s just life. It’s only in retrospect, and sometimes not even then, that we can see the reasons why our beloved plan didn’t come to fruition. Secondly, it’s there for insurance. No one plans to get in an accident or have their house burn down or worse, hence the reason we all by insurance, just in case. Lastly, and most importantly for me and those whom I advise, so that you can clear your anxious, fear based energy (the energy that manifests itself in quiet moments while you worry about your plan A not coming true).

Something very interesting happens to a person’s energy when they take the time to think out and formulate a plan B. They clear themselves of their attachment to the end result and their energy is therefore more open. Trust me, I’ve had many the argument with people who say ‘having a plan B means you’re not committed to your plan A’ and I highly disagree. Of the hundreds of times I’ve experienced in my own life and the number of times I’ve seen it happen in the lives of my clients I stand firm on this point. Just the other day, I found myself getting a bit anxious because the gentleman whom I wanted to keynote an upcoming foundational luncheon that I sit on the committee for, had not gotten back to me with an answer. Instead of worrying, I sat down and wrote out my back up plan for if he didn’t come through. An hour later he called and said, you guessed it, YES!

If you’re with me, sit down today and make sure you’ve got a plan B for all your beloved plan A’s. This will free your energy up and remove any anxiety and fear that may be getting in your way.

All the best,

Heather White, 2020 Communications Inc.

I had lunch with a client last week who was laid off from her job on Monday.  A lot of people in her situation would have gone home, got into bed and stayed there in a state of ‘poor-me’, ‘how could this happen’ -but not her.  Today, as I stood in her new office, at the new corporation she’s now working for, looking out of her 360 degree views of the downtown core – I couldn’t help but get excited.

A lot of clients have trouble formulating a Plan B because they feel like it’s copping out on their Plan A. What I often say to them is “no one expects their house to burn down, but, we buy insurance, just in case”. Formulating a Plan B is like buying insurance for your house.  It gives you the piece of mind to work your Plan A for the simple fact that you know you have a solid back up plan, should any unexpected hiccups get in your way.

Closure is an opportunity.  An opportunity to deploy your Plan B.  The moment you get laid off is not the moment to start formulating a Plan B.  Today, sit down and start to map out a Plan B, just in case.  That way, you’ll never be a victim to the circumstances, you’ll just harvest another crop.

All the Best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

We’re heading swiftly towards the last quarter of the year and it’s time now to start to assess the year thus far. Thinking back to January when you set you business goals and objectives, it’s now time to make sure you’re on track to achievement. You’ve heard us harp on all year about measurables and this is why. When you set goals for your business there has to be an accompanying action plan – without it you surely won’t succeed in reaching your targets – and more importantly a way to measure whether or not you are on track. Using revenue as an example, if you set a goal of grossing $200 000.00 in sales this year then you will know:

Quarterly Target – $50, 000

Monthly Target – $16, 666

Weekly Target – $3, 846

Daily Target – $769

Hourly Target (based on 8 hours) – $96.15

By breaking down your goal into these measurable chunks it’s easy to keep you finger on the pulse everyday as to whether or not your on track. Take a look through your 2009 goals and measure your progress against your goals. How are you doing? If you’re off target, think about your strategy for the last quarter. What can you do differently? What can you kick in to high gear to finish strong?

Everything you do in business has to be measurable. It’s the only way you can stay on track to reaping what you sow.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.