Much of my success with membership-based businesses is also because of my ability to continuously grow in the area of “mindsets”. Here are a number of tips to help you think and create in a big way.

Tip One–Honor Your Urges
One of the main reasons I left the corporate world and took the entrepreneurial plunge many years ago was so I could do more of what I enjoyed and less of what I hated. It makes sense doesn’t it? Yet, you would be surprised how many entrepreneurs don’t do more of what they love. Make sure you take advantage of the freedom you have by setting boundaries early on in your business. Successful entrepreneurs don’t create boundaries after they are wealthy. They create them so they can become wealthy. Not always being accessible actually creates scarcity and attracts more business. From now on when you want to take off and head to Starbucks or you want to take a week off and go on vacation, honor those urges, plan accordingly, and then do it.

Tip Two–You Can Work Hard and Still Have Fun
When you first start your company, you probably will wear all the hats and work harder than you ever have. But once the business is built and you start to gain new customers and sell products, it is a lot of fun. The best part of being a leader is being able to pick up the phone and have access to someone you have admired for years because you are a gatekeeper to a database of customers. You learn so much from those experts you now have access to, and your customers will love you for it when you graciously pass new information on to them.

Tip Three–Let Go To Grow
One of the main reasons I became an entrepreneur and left the corporate world back in 1999 was because I loved the freedom to just let go and have fun. I wanted to have a higher quality of life where I could be creative and earn more for that creativity. Unfortunately, what happens with many entrepreneurs in start up is they get too intense and end up chasing away the most beneficial business and personal relationships. Always remember “why” you are pursuing this dream in the first place and remember to let go and have fun with the people you meet and do business with. I love working with people who make me laugh, who have a wicked sense of humor, who get passionate about their causes, and who know how to let go, be themselves, and make “work” fun. The cool thing is these types of people attract others like them, and your fun “network” then multiplies exponentially. So do your revenues. Bottom line: Letting go and having fun in business is good for the soul and for the bank account.

Tip Six–Build Millionaire Relationships
NO ONE can reach seven figures without building crucial business and personal relationships along the way. The membership-based business model is a millionaire business model and by using it, you attract important relationships more easily. Millionaire relationships aren’t always measured by the financial return on investment (ROI) you receive either. One of the most exciting parts of building a company that you are passionate about is all of the dynamic and energetic people you can access. This type of ROI often shows up in the form of real people who serve as resources when you need them. All you have to do is decide to take action and work on getting to know people. Then you can communicate how your company can help them solve their problems.

Tip Seven–Understand Entrepreneurial Energy
Millionaires rarely sit down, and they are often in great shape. They also don’t watch TV much, and they give of themselves freely. Millionaires have lots of entrepreneurial energy. They are creative, passionate, risk takers, who are big thinkers and always evolving. If this description isn’t you yet, start aiming for these behaviors today. Know that what you eat and if you exercise directly affects your bottom line. People are attracted to people (and companies) who take care of themselves and are full of energy. What you feed your brain (literally) determines your ability to solve million-dollar problems and come up with million-dollar ideas. (Just some food for thought!)

Sheri McConnell is the President of the National Association of Women Writers and the Assn of Web Entrepreneurs. She helps women writers and entrepreneurs discover, create, and profit from their intellectual knowledge. Want to learn more about membership-based businesses? Visit www.createyourgroup.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband Seth and their four children.

Everything worthwhile in your life only comes into form through your creation. You cannot wait for the right time, the right job, the right husband, the right house, or even the right body to come to you. You have to create it. To achieve the life of your dreams, you need to spend time “visioning” what you think will make you happy. Then you get busy “acting,” moving forward, and figuring out how to create what you want. I created the right job by becoming the CEO of my own company and constantly refocusing back to my “passions” during difficult growth phases. And the BIG AHA I had that I want to share with you is that sometimes we go on autopilot. When that happens, we create messes in our lives. Always be willing to scrap some of your creations and start over, whether it’s a bad business, bad marriage, or bad eating habits. Remember, you have all the power you need within you to create the life you want.

Why Create A Virtual Group?
When I first started the National Association of Women Writers (NAWW) in 2001, I didn’t openly share that I was running and building my new company from my home office. A stigma was attached to having a home office back then; it communicated that you were a small company. Times have definitely changed. Fast forward to today. Everything I believed was a weakness in my first business in 2001 is actually a strength that I leverage today to grow my companies. These are a few reasons why I love virtual businesses.

Read the rest…

Achieving balance in our lives is accomplished by saying no when we need to and learning to set priorities. And we cannot achieve balance without understanding what our particular needs are. Balance is different for everyone. It means that you have identified your priorities and have not overextended yourself. Balance means you are aware of the dangers of burnout. Balance means that when asked the question, “Are you happy?” you can answer yes.

The following are 4 core values I use to live a balanced life and achieve my dreams easier.

One–No Guilt Allowed

One of the biggest struggles for women today is learning to say no without guilt. One of the core values I teach my coaching clients is to adopt this new rule into their lives called—No Guild Allowed. Guilt can hold you back from many of the goals you want to accomplish if you let it. Guilt doesn’t make you a better mother, or employee, or even more fit. Most of us know this, yet we still allow ourselves to fester in guilt. Guilt actually creates an imbalance in your life because you are left with feelings of inadequacy.

From now on when guilt creeps into your life—take action by noticing that the emotion is present and replace it with positive choices or joy as quickly as you can. As you retrain yourself to purge guilt, you will notice how much easier it is to move forward and accomplish your goals.

Two–Embrace Positive Choices

“The art of positive choices helps you to create the life you want. Positive choices help you to discover what truly makes you happy and realign your priorities. Life is a series of additions and subtractions. You control the calculator.”
~ Gail McMeekin ~

Another core value that allows you to achieve balance in your life is being able to make positive choices. What are positive choices—these are choices that propel you forward… they benefit your mind, your body, and your soul. These choices allow you to feel productive and focused because they are in alignment with what you really want to do on a daily basis. And remember—how we live our days is indeed how we live our lives.

Three–Cultivating Moments of Pure Joy

“The worst sin—perhaps the only sin—passion can commit, is to be joyless.”
~ Dorothy Sayers ~

One of the best things I personally ever did was follow my heart when EVERYONE else thought I was crazy. The first time I did this—I was scared, but at the time I was so miserable, I didn’t really feel like I had a choice. From that experience I learned to trust my gut and I learned that to follow my dreams meant that I was the architect of my life and that it was actually up to me to cultivate moments of pure joy in my life. For me-that means I spend most of my time either with my kids having fun or I am in the process of creating. Creating—for me is writing or decorating. To follow your dreams—you will have to take giant leaps and be willing to get your hands dirty before you learn how to cultivate a life full of joy.

Four–Practice Conscious Living

Another core value that will help you achieve balance is to practice conscious living. People who achieve their dreams do it with a plan. They may start out simply doing something they are passionate about, but eventually to achieve substantial results, they had to sit down and map out a plan. They made changes in their lives and began to live in a very conscious way. They began to pay attention to what they said yes and no to. They began to choose how they reacted to negative people and situations. They began to consciously choose to surround themselves with other people who had fun accomplishing their dreams. They decided to be disciplined about their choices and they also chose to consciously enjoy every moment they could going forward.

From this day forward, begin to practice conscious living—make sure you aren’t on autopilot. How do you know if you are on autopilot? Sometimes making excuses or blaming others can be a sign that you are living your life on autopilot. Sometimes situations in our lives or behaviors we have learned from our childhood can be the reason we don’t know how to live life in a conscious way. One of my favorite phrases ever is “You do better when you know better.” Don’t look back, just look forward. And don’t wait another day to get busy living life in a way that feels joyful to you.

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Sheri McConnell is the President and Founder of two national organizations–the National Association of Women Writers and the Association of Web Entrepreneurs. She teaches women writers and entrepreneurs how to discover, create, and profit from their intellectual knowledge. Sheri has a Masters of Arts in Organizational Management and a Bachelors in Social Work.

She has four published books for women writers and in February 2007 she started a new site— www.createyourgroup.com and published Create Your Association–The Complete Blueprint and Tool Kit for Building a Profitable and Sustainable Membership-Based Business for anyone wanting to create a profitable membership-based business from their home.

Her latest venture—a high level product for lifestyle entrepreneurs–My Millionaire Friends is at www.my-millionaire-friends.com. You can visit Sheri and see all her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com and to access her free article archive. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and two cats.

[tags]Sheri McConnell, NAWW, AWE, CYG, MMF, National Association of Women Writers, Association of Web Entrepreneurs, Create Your Group, My Millionaire Friends, accomplishing dreams, dreams, guilt, positivity[/tags]

The Three Elements

Have you heard me talk about the Leverage Triangle yet?

As entrepreneurs and pursuers of our dreams and passions, we all have 3 elements to work with when we start a business: Time, Expertise, and Money.

Most of us have very little of each of these in the beginning of our journey—but as we grow our business or our dream of any kind, we begin to have more of each and thus more leverage.

And interestingly enough–successful individuals learn to leverage other people’s time, expertise and money too. And when we do that, we often help other people reach their dreams. Our dreams are often intertwined. We just don’t notice it sometimes.

BUT…

What determines the amount of success you will have and also how fast you will achieve it?

YOUR MINDSET.

Your mindset will determine your success. Period. It is the force and the energy that is driving all those things you need to leverage. The mindset you have is more important than the amount of time you spend on building your dream, more important than your level of expertise, and even more important than how much money you have.

If you aren’t operating your passion and dream plan with proven success Mindsets, you won’t be able to leverage yours or anyone else’s money, expertise, and time exponentially.

How To Manage The Leverage Triangle

Now that you understand the Leverage Triangle and that your mindset is the powerful force driving your leverage ability of the elements of time, money, and expertise—there are some proven behaviors that will help you manage the triangle more productively. Why would you want to manage it better?

BECAUSE, managing the leverage triangle more productively will help you reach your dreams faster.

1. Set Boundaries
2. Hire A Team That Plays At Your Weaknesses As Soon As You Can Afford Them
3. Use Focus As Your Tool To Eliminate Overwhelm
4. Partner With Experts Until You Become An Expert Yourself
5. Package Your Expertise As A Low Supply Expertise

Building Your Dreams and Passion – What Mindsets To Explore

Here are just a few of the Mindsets I encourage you to explore as you build your dreams into a reality—whatever those dreams may be:

• Your Relationship With Money Itself
• Your Ability To See The Bigger Picture & Then MORE IMPORTANTLY Step Into It
• Understanding LEVERAGE & ROI and Using The Principles In EVERY Area of Your Life
• Building A Community To Serve That You Are Passionate About
• Understanding That YOU Are The Most Important Resource You Have YET You NEED a Team To Accomplish Your Goals
• Using Technology Allows You to Build a Brand and Expert Status At Lighting Speed
• Plugging Into Proven and Multiple Business Models Is Smart
• You Must Surround Yourself With People Who Are Doers
• You Must Be Willing To Take Risks and Have Sense of Adventure & Have Fun
• Systems and Automation Are Keys To Faster Success
• You Attract Specific Opportunities When You Believe Those Opportunities Are Possible

[tags] the leverage triangle, building your dreams, passion, mindset, dreams into reality, time, money, success [/tags]

What’s Your Programming

“There is an undeniable link between your programming, the core beliefs that programming creates, the vision you develop for yourself, and the results you create.” - Randy Gage

I love the quote above because the last two points really focus on the action you must take to accomplish your dreams and live passionately. We all have the same three elements to work with in order to fulfill our business dreams. We have to work with time, money, and expertise. Since we won’t often have these at the beginning of our journey, we often have to leverage them from other resources.

Creating Your Wealth Plan

Before you can apply a wealth plan of any kind–you must take inventory of where you are. Start by mapping out your ideal life:
What makes you happy?
How much do you need to earn to be happy? Read the rest…

Know When It Is Time To Eliminate Responsibilities

Feeling stressed lately? Too many to-do’s on your to-do list? If you are doing too much for too many people, you must eliminate some of the stress in your life. Start by eliminating the responsibilities that do not directly contribute to the top three goals in your life. Many areas of your life will improve immediately. Lightening your load will benefit you by improving the quality of your health and your relationships. Reevaluate your responsibilities using a time management chart at least twice a year. Read the rest…

Do you feel validated? I heard Oprah once say that she thinks everyone on this earth has one basic need—to be validated. I know when I started the National Assn of Women Writers it was because I needed to find other women who loved to write and create like me. I needed to learn with them and laugh with them because I yearned for the validation that I would receive as I in turn validated the writers too. Little did I realize at the time how many women all over the world needed their goals and dreams affirmed just as I did.

I too believe that validation or passionate connections as I like to call them are so important that I have built multiple companies with that vision in mind. Here are a five ways I have learned to create passionate connections and validate others over the last seven years as I grew the NAWW and my other companies (www.sherimcconnell.com). Even if you don’t want to start a business—whatever your goals are—I know you will accomplish them by reaching out to validate others and following the tips below. Enjoy the journey! Read the rest…

Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. Entrepreneurs willingly take part in the process of creating something new that has value by devoting time and effort and assuming the financial, psychic, and social risks. Luckily, we, as entrepreneurs, also receive the resulting rewards of independence, monetary profits from our endeavors, and the personal satisfaction of creating something viable.

As the president and founder of the Association of Web Entrepreneurs and the National Association of Women Writers, I have had the pleasure of networking with, collaborating with, and learning from web entrepreneurs on a daily basis for the last six years. It has been an ever-changing, exciting, and passionate journey!

My journey helped me discover 10 mindsets I believe every entrepreneur must have to be successful. To adapt these mindsets you must put them into practice. It isn’t enough to want to believe something–you have to act on it and practice it before it becomes a habit. Read the rest…

I am an entrepreneur and a mother of four young children. I balance three separate businesses and the needs of my entire family (including a husband, cat, and a puppy) and I still find time to take care of myself. How do I do it? By following three important Life-Tuning Strategies. All three strategies benefit your mind, body, and soul. It is time to take care of yourself for a change–let’s get started!

1. JOURNAL FROM THE HEART

The first strategy is journaling. And I even take this one step further by saying we should try to journal from the heart–meaning we should write about those issues that touch us personally in some way. Read the rest…

As we head into another new and exciting year, I really want to offer you the push you need to realize your potential in 2007. One reason I get so excited this time of year is because I always feel a sense of unlimited possibilities as the new year approaches. I love the starting over and reworking of what didn’t work in my personal and professional life last year. And after years of learning and growing and accomplishing some of the many goals I have set for myself, I decided that no matter what you decide to do in and with your life, your mindset matters most.

In fact, your mindset makes or breaks your success in this life in three ways: Read the rest…