Gratitude

  • The best thing you can do for your business today

    Showing up on social media for your business is important. Making sure all is working correctly on your website is pretty important, too. And, of course, you have to always work on building your email list.

    Those three things, in my opinion, are all paramount to a successful online business.

    But there is something that is equally, or perhaps more significant, than all those three combined. But I didn’t know that for years running my business. And I stayed at the same place for a long time. That place kept me struggling, not being able to pay all of my bills, and staying in a relationship that was not good for me. And my business wasn’t adding value to my life but rather it was sucking out my soul for the most part. That sounds extreme – but I take business very seriously and I was burning out quick. I was running in circles, working harder and harder, and nothing seemed to be making a difference. I am stubborn by nature and I thought if I forced it hard enough, it would work.

    I was doing all I could logically using social media, working on my website, and building my list. Shouldn’t success be showing up already?

    So, apparently, I was missing some part of the equation. I started reading books about gratitude and mindset in business and things started shifting. Nothing monumental but I noticed things getting better. So, I started reading more and absorbing all I could. Things were getting better. Still not great but I was on to something. I just didn’t know what. God was already a part of my business – I frequently prayed about my little business and told God about how much life was sucking and how my business was letting me down on multiple occasions. I was committed but this was a semi-pathetic way to live. I soon realized I was going at this all wrong.

    I saw a quote that was nothing new (I had seen it before). But something struck me and it really changed the way I approached life.

    Lightbulb moment! I understood! All I had been doing was complaining of my business problems and unintentionally focusing on that (even if it was in prayer some of the time). I needed to rewire my mindset completely. I needed to start having massive gratitude for things that hadn’t even happened yet! I needed to start thanking God and approaching my business as if it was already giving me the freedom I was really wanting and needing in life.

    Things changed. Things changed in a big way that it still gives me chills just writing this. My perspective did a 180 and I had a renewed energy. Day by day, that energy grew and I started working on my business from a place of gratitude and success. It was so simple yet so profound. I no longer complained about things going poorly. I shouted about things that were going right and every day small successes started adding up to bigger ones, and the momentum grew and grew.

    My dear business owning friend, the best thing I have learned about business is that mindset is a HUGE player in success. It trumps out any marketing campaign or strategy that I have in my playbook. It has made such a profound difference that things look the way I want them to now. I got rid of the nagging inability to pay bills. I started to see my own worth and value and left the toxic relationship. I stopped feeling defeated. As cheesy as it sounds, I found my own freedom.

    The BEST thing you can do for your business today is work on your mindset. Nothing, nothing, nothing else matters in the scheme of business or life until that is sorted out. All else will fall in line when you start living each day as if your prayers have already been answered.

    I wish you and your business all the best!

     

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  • What do You Want in Life?

    Are you clear on what you want from life and out of your business?

     
    “On Wednesdays, we wear pink”. That line will be forever associated with Wednesdays for me. But no. I don’t wear pink on Wednesdays as a rule. On Wednesdays, I take time to make sure my weekly and monthly goals are still in line with my vision. It’s my time to check in and make sure I am on track. Part of that process is to focus on what I have going on with my vision board. I believe majorly in the power of visualization and setting goals. When I first started my business, and for years after, I had no concrete vision of where I wanted my business to go, where I wanted my life to go, or what my definition of success was. I also didn’t make any money. Or much money anyway. I highly encourage you to get clear about what you want from your business and from your life! I have my vision board right above my desk so I can look at it every day and remember my ‘why’ in business. It is one awesome feeling to see goals reached and get to create new ones.  

    I believe in three main points when it comes to life and business.

     

    Where focus goes energy flows. 

    Thank you, Mr. Tony Robbins for that quote. And as simple as it sounds, it is true. If you focus on the negative, you tend to accumulate more negative. If you put your focus on problems, then your energy is going toward those problems. If you focus on solutions, instead, you are going to get a different result than if you just focus on problems and the negative that surrounds them. Once I started focusing on gratitude and being thankful for what I had, I felt a rise in my day to day life, and I started noticing I was getting more. So I intentionally set my focus on everything that was good in my life, and being grateful. It is a simple shift but the impact is huge. Once I started getting serious about my goals in business, I put my focus there and noticed how my business did better, especially financially, and I had a clearer purpose.

    You don’t get what you don’t ask for.

    Now it took me awhile to get this one. It’s easy to think business is all about marketing, strategies, social media, email lists, and on and on… And while it is, mindset is a HUGE factor in a successful business. Stay with me, grasshopper. If you don’t know what you want, you are going to have a hard time finding it. One of the best things you can do for your business is to get intentional about it and ask yourself what you want. Include God in on your plans and the desires of your heart. I knew I wanted to make money to be able to support myself and my kids, and I liked designing things for people, but beyond that I had no clear goals. But it came to a point where I was tired of waffling through business, and not seeing enough return for my efforts. I started to get serious and ask myself what I wanted. I prayed about it and started making plans. I spent a good year getting really intentional about what I wanted out of life. And that is when things started changing for me majorly. I remember reading on Pinterest one day something about once you ask the universe for something it starts working in your favor to make it happen. And that just makes sense to me. I started presenting my plans to God, praying about it, and I started working toward it. If you keep moving forward, and have a plan, God is going to bless that plan somehow – whether it be moving you toward it, or away it from it if it’s not where you are supposed to be. I read an article by Deepak Chopra that said something along the lines that when we keep moving forward in our lives that is when blessings show up.

    Not too long ago I found a book thru my church called  The Circlemaker: Praying Circles around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears (aff. link). And in the book, it talks about how “God honors bold prayers because bold prayers honor God”. That really blew me away. Well, the whole concept of the book did. Anyway,  don’t be afraid to ask for the BIG stuff.

    Trust your business to provide.

    I had to learn this concept in a somewhat scary manner. For years, the income from my business did not really provide for me. It did to some degree but I also relied on my children’s father to make up most of our income. Until one day it no longer did. He got laid off from work and things got ugly. We parted ways for the most part, trying to work at it somewhat for months, and I was left to figure it out for myself. And I had no idea if my business was going to be able to meet my financial obligations. And I had no idea if I was going to be able to feed my three children, pay for my house, car, utilities, etc. Oh. My. Gosh. I was terrified. But then I was also really determined. I had been wanting my business to fully provide for some time now and I was about to see if this little bird was going to fly or fall hard. (I still get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about all the emotions I was feeling at the time). Long story short – I got really courageous -the kind of courageous where you are gritting your teeth through the fear and pretending you are brave to get through it. I worked my butt off, invested in business coaching, listened to Youtube videos of business gurus every morning (I still do this every day), made goals, prayed, and prayed some more and… it worked.

    This I attribute to God because I don’t even know how it works to this day. How do the sales show up month after month? I sure as heck didn’t know how it worked back then when the month before I couldn’t have paid all the bills. But I put my focus toward making it work, and asked for it to work, and trusted it would. And it did. Please don’t think it’s all gravy for me every day because I still run a small business and it is a continual roller coaster. BUT I know the money will show up when I show up. I work toward big goals, and I ask God every morning to take the lead.

    So, in conclusion, I encourage you to:

    1. pay attention to your focus and get it where it needs to be (start with gratitude).
    2. ask yourself what you really want out of your business (and life).
    3. start trusting your business to provide (take a leap of faith).

    Not sure you are on the right path with your dream business? Read this.

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  • FREEBIE Neon Soul Digital Papers

    It’s the Papermaker Challenge! When you join the free challenge, you’ll get a workbook, 14 digital papers, and access to our private replay page.

    Here’s what we’re covering in the challenge:

    • Ways to use digital papers;
    • Creating with papers for personal projects and using them on products to sell;
    • Four types of digital papers;
    • My favorite color palette resources;
    • Different types of design software & so much more!

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