Darn, I should have just made this a video instead. Next time I promise:)

One of my bold moves for the year was investing in Alexandria Brown’s Millionaire Protégé Club mentorship program

The experience has been so worth it. I recently returned from a week-long stay in Redondo Beach, California where the first MPC retreat was held. It was nothing less than spectacular. For two days it was full-on business and networking emersion. The energy was amazing. Being in the presence of entrepreneurs who are slated to break 6 figures this year, have already broken six figures or are straight up millionaires made me think of where I’ve come from and where I’m going.

That brings me to the topic of bold moves. We were challenged to think about our businesses and lives in ways we wouldn’t ordinarily think. We reviewed the things in our lives that we simply tolerate and were challenged to come up with solutions and bold moves. I had some really big personal breakthroughs that I’m not quite ready to share yet. But I will share that one of my boldest moves to date has been stepping up and investing in my business via mentors who are on the right path. This also made me reflect a bit on how things were when I was just starting out… it was a bit of a struggle. I invested in programs as I could and eventually learned what I needed to be doing online the hard way…lot’s of trial and error. And, when I was first starting out there was no way I could drop 5 figures on a mentorship program.

That’s why I am so thrilled to share the Juice Your Biz™program with you. In fact, I’m getting really excited about this project for many reasons.

Juice Your Biz™ started as a mini-mastermind between Melani Ward and me. We originally intended to help each other build our own brands and businesses. What happened was nothing less than magical. Seriously, before we knew it the synergy between the two of us had organically created a brand new business. That’s truly how Juice Your Biz™ began and we’ve had the concept in place for well over 6 months. It was effortless and fun and showed us both how our individual talents combined can help MANY people.

We agreed to keep Juice Your Biz™ SUPER affordable because we remember exactly how we felt when we were starting out. So, if you want to invest in your business and really ramp things up, Juice Your Biz™ is for you. This is the prefect stepping stone to prepare you for your next really bold MOVE. We know you’ll want to make your own decission about how this will work for you — so there are are some really JUICY freebies to get you started (be sure download your audio & strategy sheet to see what I mean..)

Anyway, while I was at Ali Brown’s Millionaire Protégé Club live retreat, the word “juicy” was flying around the room and it was another CLEAR indication that we are on the right path. I have to say that felt REALLY good.

Melani and I are going to start sharing juicy marketing tips for you here and we invite you to post your own juicy tip, too. In fact, we’d like to keep the juicy tips short and sweet because we know how busy everyone is.

Here’s the first JUICY tip for you: Collaborate with likeminded people who have the same passion and ethics as you do and the rest will follow, organically, almost effortlessly (sure there’s some work but it’s so much FUN it doesn’t SEEM like work) and do the right thing to serve others.

Okay, your turn…please add a quick and juicy tip. We know you have juicy ideas and we’re excited  to hear what you have to say. ..

The problem for many solopreneurs however is that time seems infinite. If I make a mistake here, I’ll just figure something else out. If I don’t get to it today, I’ll do it tomorrow, or next week, or maybe never. I hear entrepreneurs all the time talking about spending time on low pay-off activities instead of getting crystal clear on what the high pay-off ones are and focusing on those. Can you imagine what your boss would say if he saw you spending an inordinate amount of time on low pay-off activities when there were plenty of high pay-off activities you could be doing? That would be unacceptable and you would likely face an ultimatum that sounded something like this, “Start producing the best results you can or you will find yourself out of a job.” Your boss wouldn’t give a hoot if you were “scared” to succeed right? So, in an effort to help my clients and myself become the most productive and successful CEOs of our own mom and pop shops, I have identified the 7 warning signs that you should fire yourself.

1. You lack a clear plan to get from where you are to where you want to go. If you go about your day doing whatever “moves you” with no regard to the specific results you are looking to achieve, you will get exactly that - no specific results.

2. You spend time on low pay-off activities because they are in your comfort zone. You may love creating low cost or free reports and you may find that it brings a lot of people into your pipeline but let’s face it, more is not always better. If those free reports are bringing in a lot of people who have historically never brought in any money, but you are able to convert 30% of your live workshop attendees to full paying clients, it is pretty clear where you should spend your time. Sure, putting on a workshop may be more work but what is the ultimate goal? If it is just to have fun then absolutely have a blast creating a library of free stuff. But, if it is to make money, you have to concentrate on the high pay off activities.

3. You have no systems in place. If you operate by the seat of your pants and find yourself explaining or doing the same thing over and over again, you are losing ground and losing money. Systems may not be sexy but they force you to be efficient so that you can spend more time working on the high pay-off activities.

4. You do everything yourself. When was the last time Bill Gates made his own travel arrangements, typed his own letters, or fielded his own business phone calls? If you want to run a million dollar business you can’t do it all alone. How much groundbreaking work do you think Bill would have accomplished if he was doing his own books or managing and shipping each order that came in? Why do you think you are any different? You are the CEO, the lead creator, the money maker. Create and implement your brilliance and make money. Delegate everything else.

5. You dress for the business you have not for the business you want. If you have all of the money and business you could ever want and you never want to bring in another client or dime then yes, you may project any image you so desire. If you want to walk around in public wearing your PJs, go for it. But, if you have any desire to grow your business, whether it be from $20,000 a year to $100,000 a year or from $2M to $10M, you have to live and present yourself as if you already have it. You are your own walking billboard. You have an opportunity to make an impression no matter where you go, on-line and off. Take it seriously and think of it as the least expensive advertising you’ll ever do.

6. You do things in the privacy of your own office you know you would get fired for in a J.O.B. By that I mean, you spend time surfing the Internet when a thought comes to mind of the latest handbag you heard about. Or, you spend hours on personal emails or dreaming of your next vacation. You are the boss so you can essentially do whatever you want; but, if you have even the slightest inkling that you are not achieving everything you want in your business, you have to make a choice. You can either continue to enjoy some of the perks of being your own boss or you can actually start acting like your own boss. What are you going to put up with? If you want to make a million or a billion dollars this year and you are at $100,000 right now, I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to happen if you spend time shopping for purses:)

7. You spend a lot of money learning and no time implementing. Imagine this. You go to your boss and say, “There is a training I really want to take that costs $3500. Will you pay for it?” Your boss says, “What do you plan on doing with what you learn in this class? How will it help our company reach our goals or increase our bottom line?” You pause for a minute and when the answer comes to you, you say with confidence, “I don’t plan on DOING anything with it. It just sounds like something I’d like to know more about and it also lets me get out of that project I wasn’t having any fun on”. Can you imagine anything more absurd? And yet, entrepreneurs make these kinds of decisions all day long. They have hard drives full of audios and pdfs and have so many binders in their office they need a separate moving truck just for their bookshelves and yet they have done NOTHING with the information.

The next time an opportunity for education or training comes your way ask yourself this question, “Am I committed to learning this process or information and am I 100% committed to implementing what I learn within 30 days?” If the answer is no, don’t do it and accept that another opportunity will come along soon. If the answer is yes, go for it and hold your feet to the fire. Deliver on the promise you make to yourself and you will see RESULTS.

So those are the warning signs that you should fire yourself. Hopefully, if you are guilty of doing any of them you see the value of turning things around and turning yourself into your own best employee. If you do, you will have the bottom line to show for it.