Bill Baren Blog

Have you ever had this experience?

You learn a new word that you seem to have never heard of before and all of a sudden you start hearing and seeing that word everywhere.

Is the word being used more now that you’ve learned it?

Or…

Are you simply noticing it more because you’ve increased your possibilities by learning a new word?

When you open your attention to new things –> you increase your possibilities

When you’re stuck, it simply means that you’ve gotten into a rut of looking at the same things over and over again.

When you widen the range of what you pay attention to and then begin to change your actions accordingly, you shift.  You get unstuck.

I call this “The Perception Principle.”

This perception principle is at the heart of why certain business owners stagnate or fail and why others achieve success and create businesses that allow them to have financial freedom.

When you put your attention on “what works” in successful businesses, including your own… and you expand the scope of what you notice, learn and apply from what works… your business grows, your confidence soars and your stress disappears.

Here’s a list of areas that I find most business owners need to pay extra attention to:

• Your Audience – knowing your audience and their needs and being able to articulate it
• Your Promise to Your Audience – knowing what you’re promising your audience that they are actually willing to invest into
• Your Business Model – figuring the optimal way to set up the packages, offering and money flow in your business
• Your Marketing Flow – understanding and optimizing the entire flow of how you attract and retain clients
• Your Team – continually finding ways for you to do what you love and let others take care of the rest
• Your Systems – stopping the need to constantly reinvent the wheel by creating ways to get great results EVERY time
• Your Self – total commitment to mastery in your areas of expertise, including knowing yourself and getting better at being YOU

It’s not always easy to notice NEW POSSIBILITIES in each of these areas.  And it certainly is not easy to commit to devoting time and energy to working ON your business in this way.  Yet, the more you pay attention, the more you can see your business with new eyes, the more your business expands to include new opportunities for increased revenue, better teams, greater partnerships and making more of a difference.

My job, as a business coach, is to continue to expand your perceptions of new possibilities in each of these areas.  And I want to continue to find the best avenues to do that with you.

~Bill

“If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.” - Vincent Van Gogh

Why is mastery important?

There is a difference between knowing how to do something and being a master of it. There is a difference between dabbling in something and being a master of that pursuit.

I know how instrumental this mind shift has been for me in my life.
And naturally, I just want to share with you some of what I’ve learned.

Here’s an example - my path towards mastering getting clients:

• I learned to see the whole picture of what it takes to get clients anytime, anywhere (my system)
• I committed myself to a relentless pursuit of learning everything that’s relevant for me on that subject (pieces of the puzzle)
• I learned to say no to other things while I was in the throws of my pursuit (focus)
• I also gave absolutely all of me while I was with my clients and always put them first (it’s not about me)
• I never gave up even when it seemed like I was going to fail (perseverance)

There have been tremendous tangible benefits to this pursuit. I have an overflowing practice and a coaching company with 5 successful coaches. I now know what works and what doesn’t work as far as getting and keeping clients. I have the confidence that I can get clients. The freedom that gives me is huge. And most importantly to me, I now have intimate knowledge of the mechanics of success and the confidence that I can be successful with anything I commit myself to.

What I learned by playing poker

I have recently got into playing poker. I love the game. There are a lot of moving parts and it takes a lot to master. I have to know the cards. I have to know myself. I have to know the people I playing with. I have to know the situation. It’s complicated and I love it.

I can talk about poker all day, but one important thing I have noticed is that many of the top players were once champions and winners at other games/sports - chess, backgammon, bridge and even basketball.

In this past World Series of Poker, Jordan Farmar, a point guard for the Lakers basketball team, made it to Day 3 of the event. I have played in the tournament and I know how difficult it is to get to Day 3.

What’s remarkable about Farmer’s great poker run is that he learned to play poker just a few days prior to the tournament. He already knows what it takes to win. He knows what it takes to be a masterful point guard. And he converted that to doing well at the World Series of Poker.

When you commit to mastering one thing, you commit to being successful.

Another example of this is Josh Waitzkin. He was a Junior chess champion and now he is a Martial Arts champion. I’ve heard him mention in interviews that he sees no difference for himself between chess and martial arts. He understands mastery and the rest is simply picking what he wants to be a master of.

“There’s this wonderful buddhist story, an ancient Indian story, and basically the parable is this: If a man wants to walk across the Earth, and the Earth is covered with thorns, he has two answers, he has two possible solutions: He can cover the entire Earth with leather, which will take a lot of time - that’s the external solution - or he can make sandals, that’s the internal solution. And I really believe in making sandals.” - Josh Waitzkin

So when you commit to mastery, you don’t just master that one thing, you learn how to master anything… and thorns will not stand in your way.

When you can make a mindshift from attaining your goals to being a master of what you chose to take on, not only do your goals come to you more effortlessly, but you learn how turn anything you want into gold.

What can you do now?

• Decide if mastery is important to you
• Pick something that you want to master
• Commit to getting on the road to mastering that which you just picked
• Identify what the first step is on the road to mastery
• Start walking

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” - Albert Einstein

Here’s to mastery!!

Business is uncertain. Anyone who begins to think that their success is a certainty is simply fooling him or herself.

We create promises to ourselves that create our motivations to get things done. We consciously or unconsciously say to ourselves, if I start to make calls to my perspective clients, my business will grow and I can be successful. I can increase the certainty for prosperity.

There simply is no certainty. Change your thinking away from wanting security. Begin to be comfortable in the uncertainty. Simply be aware.

Awareness and curiosity are the states that will lead you to business and personal success.

Business is not a mechanical process. It constantly and organically changes. Trends change. Your competition changes. Your relationship to your business changes. Market conditions change. Uncertainty is constant.

Keep your eyes open and practice unbridled awareness. This state of being and not doing will allow you to get as close to your own definition of success as possible at any given moment.

There is no dogma. There is no security. There’s only aware exploration. Not all successful entrepreneurs know this. Most fulfilled and contented ones do.

Anyone that has ever been self-employed knows, it’s not always easy. It’s not easy being a good boss and it is especially not easy being a good boss to yourself.

** Keep you word. Call when you said you would call. Complete the job on time. Promise and deliver.
** Provide Benefits. Get health insurance, regular savings and retirement savings plans.
** Pay Less Taxes. Do whatever you can to deduct EVERYTHING within legal limits. Get a great book-keeper and accountant.
** Get Help. If you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant.
** Keep In Touch. Creating a system of keeping in touch with your customers is the most effortless and most effective way of marketing your products or services.
** Empty Space. Have the time and space in your schedule where you get to create with absolutely no interruptions - no cell phone, no computer, no books, no people - just you and an empty piece of paper (OK - pens are allowed).
** Dream BIG. If you are working for yourself and you have no ceiling, you might as well be reaching for the stars.

Here’s another post on the subject:

** Megillustrations

What are some of your secrets? Please share.

The explorers of our time are people who are exploring the depths of what’s possible for themselves personally, for human kind as a whole and for the process of creating ideas and bringing them to life.

Prosperous Entrepreneurs are explorers. They ask the questions:

• Who do I have to be in order to create what I want?
• How can what I do continue to move the human race forward consciously?
• How can I continue to stretch the boundaries of what’s possible creatively?

**Monday morning inspiration.**

Envision it. Believe it. Make it happen.

“People living in scarcity see the cup as half empty.
People who are positive thinkers see the cup as half full.
People living in abundance see the cup as overflowing.
But people Living into their Greatness ARE the Cup.” — Kim George

“Focus on what’s going great for you in your business.
Do more of it, living into your greatness.
Be a cup for what you want most next.” — Sylvia Warren

The television and film establishment hasn’t been overly friendly to the business world lately.

The Business & Media Institute studied 129 episodes of the top 12 Nielsen-rated network TV dramas airing on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. Only 39 episodes featured plots alluding to commerce or primary characters who were businessmen. Of those, 30 (77 percent) were anti-business - almost four times as many as were graded pro-business. Only nine episodes (23 percent) were graded pro-business for the actions of the characters or the nature of the plot.

On primetime television, victims were 21 times more likely to be kidnapped or murdered by businessmen than the mob. Businessmen also committed crimes five times more often than terrorists and four times more often than street gangs. They were nearly as prolific villains (21 felonies) as hardened criminals like drug dealers, child molesters, and serial killers put together (23 felonies).

Businessmen and women killed their associates and slept around the office, while their corporations were painted as big, faceless and evil. While one character on CBS’s “Without a Trace” accused drug companies of “doing experimental drug trials on kids, seldom did any business-related characters produce honest work or benefits for society.”

Film, especially documentaries, aren’t angling to become business’ best friend either with a slew of documentaries bashing corporations. Filmmakers have exposed the concept of the Corporation, Enron, Walmart and McDonald’s. This is just the tip of the iceberg (which maybe melting as we speak) of what’s out there in the business NegativLand.

_______________

• Is this perception right on?
• If so, what can we and our businesses do to alter that perception?
• Is the rise of a conscious corporation possible?
• What can we as individuals do to be a part of that movement?

_______________

As I sit, write and ponder the global transformation of business, I am overwhelmed by the long road ahead of us. How can I be more of a catalyst for a change towards a more conscious triple bottom line approach (profit, planet, people) to business? Is it even possible? I am reminded that revolutions happen one person at a time. Revolutions are fueled by the passion of a few individuals that are able to ignite the belief of others and incite them to action. I want this revolution and I want the whole world to want it. I am now more inspired then when I began writing this post. I feel more connected to my mission of helping entrepreneurs create conscious businesses and prosperity for themselves and beyond.

What can I do today? What can I do to align my belief system with my actions now?

I often find that when a great new idea pops into my head, I get super excited about it right away and then the excitement tends to decrease over time. It’s as if the air keeps getting let out of my idea the longer I wait to act on it and/or complete it.

Andrea Lee explains this phenomenon of completing quickly in this post regarding finishing her book in 45 days.

Here are my TOP 5 Reasons to Complete Quickly

1. Completing quickly gives you the opportunity to act on your next great idea
2. The faster you complete something the faster you can reap the benefits of it.
3. Completion gives you lots of energy and a great sense of accomplishment.
4. Completing a project quickly allows you to work on it at the peak of your excitement.
5. Allow completion to be your own de-cluttering of the brain. Once you are done you can give yourself permission to not think about it.