7 of 7: Your Top 7

Imagine yourself having just finished leading a successful workshop…

There were wonderful, engaged participants who are eager to recommend you to others…and who want to work with you again…

You gained a deeper, more delicious understanding of your own work…

And you made a nice profit.

Sounds great, right?

And you know that Turn Your Wisdom Into Workshops (which starts TOMORROW) will give you all the tools, insights and straight-from-the-trenches information to succeed, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pro.

So what’s holding you back?

(I tried to write this in such a way as to be useful to you whether you’re consider my class or not. Let me know what you think. Is it fun? Meaningful? Annoying? Too woo? Helpful?)

1) You feel like now’s not a good time. You wish this were happening in a few months.

Practical Answer: Yes. Opportunity is often inconvenient. But if you get into it and decide it’s really not working, just let me know within 30 days and I’ll cheerfully refund your tuition. No worries.

Spiritual Growth Answer: This opportunity has presented itself to you now because now is the right moment for you. You don’t have to feel ready. You don’t have to feel confident. You don’t even have to know where all this is going. I have faith in you. The Divine Spirit has faith in you. Your future students have faith in you. The moment to step out in faith is now.

Try This Perspective: I answer the call, knowing that everything is unfolding in perfect time.

 

2) You don’t feel like you’re really an “expert.”

Practical Answer: Actually, I bet you kind of are. I’ve been leading workshops of all sizes & shapes for over 30 years, and in my experience, most of what makes a great teacher great is life experience, empathy and a unique perspective on the material.

Spiritual Growth Answer: You don’t need to a special certification to be able to help people. And you never have to pretend you know more than you do. You know what you know. That’s sufficient: you know what you know.

Try This Perspective: I know what I know, and I’m learning more every day.

3) You kind of hate the idea of promoting yourself.

Practical Answer: Oh, honey, we all do – especially at the beginning. But it gets a lot easier and more joyful with the support and simple guidelines provided in the class.

Spiritual Growth Answer: You may feel like it’s not really safe for you to be VISIBLE. Or that you already take up too much space. Or that you mustn’t impose on people. But you are ready to move past the point where you let old stories and fear make the decisions for you. Self-promotion may be uncomfortable at first, but if you really want to help people, it’s well worth it.

Try This Perspective: I am ready to stand tall in my truth and share my voice with the people who need to hear it.

4) You really don’t know how much to charge.

Practical Answer: It’s tricky, right? Charge too much and you might turn people off, charge too little and it’s not worth your time. I’ll give you some great suggestions and formulas for figuring out the perfect price point.

Spiritual Growth Answer: Remember that buying and selling is a sacred exchange of energy. Just like other sacred exchanges of energy (a hug, for example, or sex) it requires strong intention, mutual respect and an honoring of the other. As a teacher, you have an opportunity to re-shape your relationship with money. Nothing overcomes an old story like a new experience.

Try This Perspective: Creativity is abundant, clients are abundant, money is abundant. I rejoice in the easy flow of money, energy and time.

5) You’re not sure exactly what you’d teach…or if anyone would be interested in it.

Practical Answer: We cover that in the class, so you’ll have total clarity and focus.

Spiritual Growth Answer: Staying in the “I don’t know” or “I’m still figuring it out” stage for too long is a form of hiding out. It also shows traces of insidious perfectionism.

Try This Perspective: I open up to new information and to my intuition, knowing I am on the right path.

6) I don’t know if I should teach online or in person.

Practical Answer: Both are good. You might want to teach in person if you live in a big city, like being up in front of a group, and if you’re teaching something where you need hands-on access to their physical bodies. You might want to consider teaching online if you want to reach a global community, if you like the “green” aspect of no one having to drive anywhere, and you are OK learning some tech stuff. And certainly you can do both. (I do.) Either way, you’ll get total clarity on this during the class.

Spiritual Answer: Allowing yourself to stay in a state of indecision is keeping your foot on the neck of your talent.

Try This Perspective: It’s safe for me to decide. I can always choose again.

7) I don’t have the money.

Practical Answer: You can get started for just $187. That’s six bucks a day. If you can learn enough to get 10 people to pay you $49 for a one-day workshop, you’ve earned back your investment. And you can do that over and over again.

Spiritual Answer: You always have the money you need to do the things that are truly important to you. And in my experience, the minute you take action, the resources appear. (You’ve had that, too, right? You decide to do something that you really want and then almost immediately, the exact amount you need shows up. Happens all the time.)

Try This Perspective: I take inspired action and welcome in the miracles.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope that you feel clean, clear and fabulous about it.

Yours,
Sam

What do you think about this email exchange I had a while back?

“Hi Sam; 

While I applaud your efforts with this event and wholeheartedly agree with your philosophy, the bottom line is that you are a motivational speaker and people feed off of your energy because that is something that they cannot provide for themselves.   It’s not about the book or the event, it’s about your personality and charisma…The problem is, once the book is read and the event attended we are usually back to square one… 

Anyway, I wish you success in your efforts and I will continue to watch your webinars, you are really quite therapeutic but unless you are going to move in with me and give me a kick in the pants 24/7, this stuff usually doesn’t work.   

– B.” 

 

Here’s what I wrote back:

“Hi B. – 

I think that what you are saying is exactly true — but only for about 80% of my audience. 

That 80% attend a free training, they get excited…..and then they go right back to their same old patterns and nothing changes. 

As near as I can tell, that 80% number is true for all personal development stuff from gym memberships to preachers to diet plans to financial strategies to everything else on the planet. Shoot – most of us wear only 20% of our wardrobe most of the time; the other 80% goes unworn. (It’s the Pareto Principle.) 

And I think that’s fine. 

If 80% of my people are going to use me as a source of temporary inspiration and entertainment, well, then — what’s wrong with that? 

The remaining 20%, though….they actually DO IT. 

They take the strategies and ideas I teach and they run with it and they change. 

They double their income. 
They get out of destructive relationships. 
They publish their book. 
They get their “dream” business up and running. 
 
My experience is that when people are — well, I was going to write “ready” to change, but I mean more than that — when change becomes MANDATORY for them — they find the teacher who’s right for them and they change. 

So, B., if you suspect that you’ve reached the “mandatory” stage…or even if you’d just like a temporary shot of inspiration, I’d love to invite you to join us. 
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to write. 

Yours, 
Sam.”
 
 
Here’s my question for you —
 
Are you ready to be part of the 20%?
 
Are you hungry to see RESULTS?
 
Look, in the past 11 days I have: 
 
– Handed in my 2nd draft of my new book to my publisher – whoot! whoot! 

– Bought a new car because it was time to retire my wonderful 2000 Honda Accord with 184,000 miles on it. 

– Spent 2 mind-melting-in-a-good-way days at a Byron Katie Workshop in Ojai 

– Screwed up my courage to introduce myself to Stephen Mitchell (Katie’s husband) who is one of my literary heroes — I felt really shy, but I HAD to tell him how much his work has meant to me over the years and I knew I couldn’t keep encouraging you all to push past your perceived limitations if I wasn’t willing to do the same.

– Had a long, wonderful talk over an excellent bottle of wine with one of my oldest friends, who also happens to be a big TV star (and I got ALL the good Hollywood gossip….) 

– Started a new paint-by-numbers. Don’t laugh. Paint by numbers is cool. 

– Paid about a gabilion dollars in taxes — which was great because that means business is good and getting better all the time and plus I had salted the money away over the course of the year, so I could pay in full. My tax dude is very proud of me. 

– Taught 7 classes — 6 online, 1 in person — to a total of over 1500 brilliant creative students. You can check out the open Q&A call I did here if you want a sample:http://iTeleseminar.com/83976132 

– Drove into LA to drop-in on my favorite improv class taught by the great Dave Razowsky– I don’t want to let my acting skills get rusty just because I moved to the beach, right? 

– Had 2 fun date nights with my sweetheart plus a few lovely beach walks. 

– Made a lovely potato-leek soup from scratch from my old Julia Child cookbook – yum. 
– Attended an Infusionsoft training webinar taught by my old pal Jordan Hatch so I can stay up on all the latest marketing technology. 

– Plus had a crown replaced (ugh) got my iPhone fixed (also ugh) had two short, effective Team Meetings with my fabulous crew and finished two novels. 

And I gotta say — it’s not like this past 11 days is all that different from the rest of my calendar. 

But if you had told me 10 years ago that my life would look like this, I would have said, “IMPOSSIBLE.” I was broke, suffering from severe depression and while my creative life was OK, my financial life and my spiritual well-being were in serious jeopardy. 

I couldn’t see how my life could ever change. 

But I was willing to give it a try. So I got a coach, committed to a program and started down the path to here. 

I invested, and I dug myself out of that hole and got out of my own way. And I can help you get out of your own way, too. 

I created the principles, tactics and strategies in The Get It Done Workshop so that I could lead this creatively fulfilled, financially sustainable, spiritually enriched and FUN life. 
Here’s a Little Quiz

Here’s a Little Quiz

So here’s my little quiz:

I want you to think about one particular project you are procrastinating – you might have lots, but let’s just pick one – whichever one comes to the top of your head first.

OK? Got a project picked out?

Because we all know that some ideas take a looooooong time to come to fruition. And some plans are waiting for the right time, the right partner, the right technology….

So how to tell the difference between an idea that is still fomenting and an idea that we’re quashing?

Here’s your answer: INTUITION.

Here’s a 2-minute exercise on how to do that:

1) Get quiet inside of your mind, take a few deep breaths, and imagine your project sitting before you. What color is it? What form is it showing you?

2) Take its pulse. Is it vibrant and alive? Or does it feel strangled and weak?

3) Ask your project what it wants you to do. Listen to the answer without reacting. Just take in the information.

4) Say “thank you” to your project and come back to yourself. Make some notes.

If you’re still unsure, then try taking a few baby steps (less than 15 minutes; easily affordable; not too scary) toward your project and see what happens. If the universe comes rushing at you with bushels of support, then GREAT!

Proceed.

And if you make a few starts and it’s all knees-and-elbows and missed calls and weirdness, then drop it — now is not the right time for this project. Write it down and put it in the “Genius Ideas – Fomenting” file.

(You do have a file like that, yes? Or a shoebox? If not, you should get one. It’s important for every idea to have a home

Perfectionism Is An Insidious Demon…

Perfectionism Is An Insidious Demon…

Perfectionism is an insidious demon that must be fought with every weapon you’ve got.


Here’s what’s so tricky about perfectionism: it turns procrastination into a virtue.


Because it’s good to have high standards, right?

And it’s good to expect the best from your self, right?



We want to make things that are beautiful, extraordinary, unique…

And then you crumble under the pressure you’ve put on yourself and never create anything at all. But it’s not your fault – it’s your damn high standards.

The other problem with perfectionism is that it keeps you from noticing the great things that you create effortlessly.

By keeping your focus on that which is hard, unattainable or impossible to execute, you fail to give yourself credit for that which is easy and fun.

While you’re busy struggling with the idea that you need to be some great painter (all the while NOT painting), you might miss out on a brilliant career as a caricaturist. Your frustrated desire to write the perfect novel can prevent you from seeing your potential as a lyricist.


This is the worst kind of snobbery.

Disdaining your own gifts is as cruel as disdaining your own children.

Remember:  The World Needs Your Art.

A 2-Minute Treat for You — watch this and play along —

As a special treat, we’ve made you this super-fun 2-minute movie that’s all about how to slay the dragon of your procrastination : )

 

Please share it with your family, friends, kids, colleagues, and social media buddies.

There’s nothing to sign up for or register — it’s just a gift designed to stimulate your creativity and have a little fun.

With wishes for a joyful, creative Thanksgiving to all our US friends and a big kiss for everyone else —